Michel Chapoutier is in his mid-forties, bespectacled, and looks professorial. Someone called him Napoleonic, and the description wasn’t merely metaphoric. He is short in size and has presence. He looks indomitable. Before we sit, he checks his Blackberry, doesn’t like the results, and looks displeased. Nonetheless, a glance at a vast array of glasses and M. Chapoutier wines makes him smile, and he looks years younger and less severe. It’s impossible not to like him, and this was decided the moment his business card was offered, which simply read “wine lover,” and which was made in Braille for those impaired.

The wine world doesn’t really need another article on Northern Rhône wine or another piece on M. Chapoutier, but each is insistent on being written about precisely because each speaks to such enormous quality. Perhaps the old adage is true: “one can never write enough about great wine.”

Michel Chapoutier’s wines are legendary. The winery goes back to 1808, and Michel represents the seventh generation. The wines achieved even greater legend when Michel took over in 1990. He restored a winery that was close to falling into bankruptcy and revived it with almost military exactness. In two decades, he has placed his imprimatur on all 560 acres. When he took over at age 26, having just finished oenology school, he was a visionary on crusade. He created a winery biodynamie — a biodynamic winery, a spiritual approach to viticulture that views, as Jancis Robinson says, “soil as an integral part of the symbiosis between planet, air, and cosmos ... [and] that follows the rhythms of nature.” Chemicals, fertilizers, and sprays are not used. Organic farming with a reliance on dung — detritus, if you will — are the essential things. Here the soil is in harmony with terroir (with the total environment of the vineyards) and recovers and restores itself, and is better able to resist parasites and diseases. To Michel, soil is everything. Twenty years ago he was ahead of his time: biodynamic wineries would become the future. He did more: he says he “ruthlessly” pruned back his vines, “I wanted better and healthier grapes.” With soldierly precision, he terraced and beautified his vineyards, and “I banished the old chestnut barrels,” he says laughingly, “in favor of smaller oak ones.” His work, his conquests as it were, paid off because since 1990 nature has repaid him with four outstanding five-star Northern Rhône vintages — 1990, 2003, 2005, and 2006 (1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2002 and 2007 are excellent vintages as well). In short, the great producer became still greater, and it helps to explain why Northern Rhône wines, like his and Guigal, became such hot, marketable and auctionable items.

What Chapoutier ultimately did was to give his wines polish. The older Chapoutier wines were very good, but in a rustic way: they were heavier, spicier, and tannic. Michel gave the wines — reds and whites — a more refined texture; they now had class and elegance and distinction. In tasting some of the Chapoutier wines of the 1980s, most of the wine press (Parker and Broadbent, for examples), while enthusiastic about the wines, used adjectives like “heavy,” “big,” “tannic,” “gritty,” “powerful,” “big grip,” and “hard.” For us, the whites had no signature, the reds no identifiable style, and both could be ponderous. Michel changed that. Chapoutier’s wines of today — his Hermitage, for example, which is glorious in the extreme — are softer, gentler, more approachable, sweeter, fruitier. They also have greater length, more layers, with finer texture, and, incredibly, even more complexity. Tannin, like oak, is never excessive in the newer wines, and they’re better balanced. Style, ripeness and finesse are part of the M. Chapoutier style.

But not all is soil and vines to Chapoutier. He has assisted in a book about himself, not surprisingly entitled Michel Chapoutier by Jean-Charles Chapuzet. When asked when the book was to be published, he was unsure and frowned apparently thinking about its publication. (It has since been published in late 2009.) It’s a vanity — a splendid one — when someone only in his mid-forties should assist with a book about his life and times in wine, a subject usually reserved for the retired. Perhaps one could say that the remarkable strides he has made at the winery warrant it. Perhaps it is that Napoleonic streak revealing itself again.

Tasting Notes

We tasted a host of lately released wines, both with Michel and later at our own blind tasting. Here are seven very impressive wines. The whites are from the Marsanne grape variety; the reds are from the Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre varieties.

2007 M. Chapoutier Crozes-Hermitage Blanc “La Petite-Ruche,” $25. Easy and approachable. Soft oak, with vanilla, apple, and spice, and more of same in the flavors.

2006 M. Chapoutier Hermitage Blanc “Chante-Alouette,” $85. Hugh Johnson says that every wine lover should have a chance to taste this wine. Wonderful. Rich vanilla, buttery, nutty, honey. Delicious. One of the best French white wines tasted in a long time.

2007 M. Chapoutier Ermitage Blanc “De L’Orée,” $190. 100% Marsanne. A special time wine, but what a wine. Only about 50 cases produced. Apples, vanilla, hints of oak and spice all beautifully balanced, with a crisp, engaging acid that cuts through cheeses, Chicken Normandy, Dover Sole, or lobster.

2007 M. Chapoutier Crozes-Hermitage Rouge “La Petite-Ruche,” $25. Rich strawberry/raspberry aromas, with lace of anise, and currant tones, with much the same in the flavors. A compote of fruit flavors. Rich Syrah notes in finish.

2006 M. Chapoutier Châteauneuf-du-Pape Rouge “La Bernardine,” $50. Rich plum, berry, and spice aromas, with these and anise, currant and raspberry/cherry in the flavors. Long and engaging finish.

2006 M. Chapoutier Hermitage Rouge “La Sizeranne,” $112. 100% Syrah. One of the great Chapoutier offerings. Raspberry/cherry, oak, and currant in the aromas. Spice, raspberry, and anise in the flavor. Medium-active tannins. Richly textured and beautifully made. If you drink now, decant; otherwise, save for several years.

2007 M. Chapoutier Ermitage Rouge “Le Meal,” $210. 100% Syrah. Big is the operative word. Medium tannins, rich berry, still evolving. Long finish that needs balance and lots more aging. Worth the wait. Try it in 2020.