25 year old COTE ROTIE Tasting
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- Опубликовано: 25 авг 2023
- In this video, Bob Paulinski Master of Wine will discuss the wines of Cote Rotie. For me, it’s the greatest expression of Syrah.. I’ll discuss the region, the grape varieties, the wines, what look for in todays market, along with tips to get the most out your old bottles and I’ll then open a 25-year-old bottle from a classic producer.
The Rhone Valley is in the SE of France. The Northern Rhone starts just a short ride south from the city of Lyon, Cote Rotie is the first appellation that’s encountered along the way. Cote Rotie means roasted slope. Many vineyards have a south, southeast exposure for extended sunlight hours. Steep vineyard sites are common, up to a 60% gradient. The soil is rocky with mostly schist and granite soils. Any moisture tends to quickly drain away through the infertile soil, this is a factor in limiting yield and improving quality.
The Rhone Valley is the second largest French wine region, only behind Bordeaux. 95% of the wine production comes from the south. Cote Rotie has only about 500 acres under vine, split between about 130 growers. Do the math, it’s a good number of grape growers with small parcels, most part manually work the vines. This is a continental climate, versus the southern Rhone which is Mediterranean. It’s a very old growing region, but as recent as the 1950s and 1960s the active vineyards were few, as many growers opted for the easier to tend vineyards in the flatter plains.
Many growers sell their fruit to Guigal, a primary wine producer in the region. More recently, some smaller growers are starting to produce their under their own labels, sometimes in lots as limited as a couple hundred cases or less. Cote Rotie is made either from entirely or predominantly Syrah. The reality is some are 100% Syrah, but others use a bit of Viognier, usually around 5%. The rules allow for Viognier use up to 20% of the final wine, but it must be co-fermented with the Syrah, not blended together after fermentation. That said, it would be rare for anyone to use 20% Viognier.
The truth of the matter, in some vineyards Syrah and Viognier are inter planted, there is no practical way to separate the two without much added expense. Used with skill, Viognier adds aromatics and rounds out the wine, get it wrong and it’ll result in color dilution and perhaps acidity problems as well. Many Cote Rotie will indicate a more specific place of origin. The most common are Cote Brune and Cote Blonde, each produces somewhat different styles of Cote Rotie. The former is from a site that results in deeper, more tannic styled Cote Rotie, the latter has a different soil structure that brings bit softer and a bit lighter style. Beyond that, even more site specific indicators have become increasingly common.
The current vintage pricing runs about $275 to $300 per bottle. As for the one that I’m opening here, it’s a rarity, and prices quotes tend to be broad, but I found a quote that topped out at over $400 per bottle. Originally, I paid $40 back when it was released in the early 2000s.
With older bottles, some special care is called for in order to maximized the wines potential. Stand the bottle upright for a day or two. This will allow any sediment to work its way down to the base of the bottle and therefore it reduces the risk of it ending up in your wine glass. Check the fill level. As the wine ages, the fill level will drop a bit. Ideally, it shouldn’t be more than a finger width from the base of the cork and wine top out level of the wine. This one is perfect, the gap is maybe ¼”. Check the condition of the cork, there should be no signs of leaking. Shine a bright light up into the base of the bottle, it’ll allow you to see the amount of sediment prior to opening the bottle. If the cork feels a bit soft or spongy, which is common with older bottles, use a two prong or ah-so.
I’ll list producers and vintages that are worth searching out. The wines will be pricy, many will quickly hit and surpass the $100 mark. But in terms of great cellar candidates, you won’t go wrong.
2019 Christophe Billon Cote-Rotie Les Elotins $53
2019 Patrick Jasmin - Cote Rotie $65
2019 J. Vidal-Fleury - Cote-Rotie Cotes Brune et Blonde $80 2019 Cote Rotie “La Boisselee”, Barruol/Lynch $95
2019 Yves Cuilleron Cote Rotie Lieu-Dit Les Bonnivieres $100 2019 Rene Rostaing, Cote Rotie, Ampodium, $100
2019 Domaine Georges Vernay Cote-Rotie $140
2019 Gangloff - Cote Rotie La Barbarine $275
2020 Rene Rostaing Cote Rotie La Landonne $210
2020 Domaine Jamet Cote-Rotie $220
For Value: Cave d'Tain, various bottlings from the northern Rhone, maybe the best run co-op in France, excellent values Also, anything from Yves Cuilleron, excellent source.
#winelife #winetasting #france #rhone #syrah #bobpaulinski #wset #masterofwine #redwine
Gangloff is really a masterwine-maker with genuine passion of this great terroir. The Sereine Noire is even more complex and requires aging but it is a mind and palate blowing experience. thanks a lot for sharing...
This one was a beauty, one of the better wines tasted this year. Thanks for commenting. 🍷
Fantastic treat to Take a peek inside your wine cellar.
Thank you. That was long overdue, wanted to show a bit of the stash. 🍷
That's a damn impressive wine collection. As someone who's recently getting serious about wine I hope to one day afford to try those.
It’s taken years to build. I pop nuts a small amount of old wines each year, but it’s enjoyable, like drinking a time capsule. Thanks for the comment. 🍷
Hi Bob, as always, great informative video. I think you had a quiz of Cote Rotie. Cheers!
Thank you Dmitri. I pulled the Cote Rotie question. It had a spelling error! Cheers.
What an amzing vid.. and from a producer i dont know, to make it even better..
I just love the Rostain lineup. Never done anything but smile, when i drink them.
Jamet, is a wine i only had 1 time. Just really hard to finde.
Thanks for the good word. I sincerely appreciate it. Over the years, every Cote Rotie that I’ve tasted has been enjoyable. Not a single disappointing one in the lot. Rostaing is fabulous. Jamet, outstanding. My least favorite, while still very good are the wines from Guigal. Too much oak, in my view. Cheers. 🍷
Thanks Paul!
Glad you liked it. Cheers. 🍷
I have 4 bottles of the Domaine Jasmin Cote Rotie 2019. Will love to see how the wine develops. Definitely bottles built to age.
Indeed, plenty of mileage there, easily another ten years for your Jasmin. Excellent source! 🍷
@@bobpaulinskimasterofwine7234 I had the absolute privilege to taste 88, 89 and 90 JL Chave Hermitage Rouge. Holy cow those wines were amazing. Still in their secondary windows barely showing any tertiary. Aged Syrah can indeed be quite special and unique.
@@danielpereyo8206 Three solid vintages from a great producer. I’m sure that was a fun experience. Cheers!
Love the video. I'd definitely be interested to see a video about Hermitage, as well, and how it compares to Côte-Rôtie.
Thanks you! I like your idea or perhaps Hermitage vs Crozes Hermitage to cover a wider price spread. Cheers. 🍷
I love seeing that you age your wines in a wine fridge. Here in Florida, I don’t have the luxury of a wine cellar.
The fridge in the video has worked flawlessly for ten plus years. FL heat would not be kind to aging wines. Hopefully you have a place that’s some protected.
@@bobpaulinskimasterofwine7234 I keep a lot of mine in three fridges. Some are on racks that I sometimes question if they will be cooked.
Do you have any recommendations for wine fridges for home storage? There are big differences in price. You can buy a 300 bottle unit for $1500, but a Eurocave costs 3-4x that. (That’s a lot of storage $ per bottle, even amortized over 6-7 years.) on the other hand, a $1500 fridge with a compressor that goes out after a year is useless. Thoughts?
@@numanuma20 Good storage is vital. I keep all of my wines under temp control except for a few that I plan to open soon that are kept in a small counter rack.
@@jimcricket8334 I have an ArteVino upright that holds close to 300 bottles. Flawless operation for over ten years and it’s been moved a few times as well. I’ll post a video on wine storage before too long.
Ahh, gangloff is a favourite of my boss so I've been lucky enough to try the condrieu and cote rotie, may just be topped by a jeroboam of clos des grives... The staff parties are good! Great vid as ever
A jeroboam! Sounds like incredible staff parties. Thanks for the good word on the video. 🍷
Thanks for the video and the recommendations you left in the description 😀 I wonder what food you had with that lovely bottle 😁
I’m glad you enjoyed the video. The day that video was shot, turned into a late night. Ended up making a burger on the grill. Perhaps not the best match for a great bottle, but it was a darn good burger! 🍔
Great video, Bob. Coincidentally, my favourite wine of 2022 was a Cote Rotie: Gallet Blanc, 2013. This year, a 2011 Barolo is currently in the lead.
I bought a mixed half-case of '13s en primeur, which I thought would be drinking before my '10s, '15s and '20s. So far, so good. I have only two bottles of the great 2010 vintage - from Ogier. When to drink? Probably not until I have finished the '13s.
Tonight, a modest Montepulciano d'Abruzzo I opened during the week but tomorrow I might try the first bottle of a half-case of Cornas, '13 from Perrin. Or perhaps a Gigondas, '15.
Thank you Steven. Great list of wines! I couldn’t have too much Cote Rotie in my cellar. Ogier is outstanding. Perrin is always solid for any of their offerings. I think any of the wines listed have plenty of mileage left in them. I appreciate the message. 🍷
Always love to see someone enjoy a bottle of Gangloff. What a cool and humble guy. I scored a good deal of new release bottles last year at stellar prices. Under $120 for the 2019 La Barbarine and $175 for the Sereine Noire. And the Condrieu too (which is one of the greats IMO).
I certainly did enjoy that bottle! Fantastic pricing! That’s quite a score. I’ve not had his Condrieu.
Great video Bob. I really appreciate you putting the recommendations in the description. Cheers!
Much appreciated. Thank you. Cheers!
From this video I've particularly enjoyed the brief comment on the soil. It's a foundational topic (pun intended) but a really tough one to master. Bite-size information on edaphology is really useful. Cheers!
I’m glad to read it was helpful. That was one hell of a bottle of wine. Exceptional!
Wines from the Rhône valley are what I plan on exploring more of during the next red wine season, aka during the coming winter months. Cote Rotie will need to be part of that exploration. Drinking Kühling-Gillot Nierstein Riesling 2021 while watching. The wine probably would benefit from a few more years of age but is still very much enjoyable. My favourite Kühling-Gillot so far is their Riesling Qvinterra at half the price of what I'm currently drinking.
You’re drinking well! When you visit the northern Rhône this winter, bring warm clothes. I was there in January years ago, very cold.
I have a general "cellar strategy" question for you. That first shot pans over your collection (envious, BTW) and I noticed a lot of individual/single vintages. When you buy wines for your cellar, do you usually by them as a stand-alone bottle here and there, or in 3s, half-cases or cases? I'd like to start beefing up my collection a smidge, on a modest budget, but I also don't want to rest my hopes on a single bottle which could be corked, etc. My make a good video sometime. Thanks!
Hi Kevin, the camera shot shows solo bottles, but most were bought at a minimum of three bottles each. I like to see how they wines develop over time, it can only be done with multiples of each. Hmm, maybe I should make a video on less pricey wines to cellar away. Cheers. 🍷
Time to come over for a cellar raid!
If you come to Cali, the cellar raid is a go! 😂
Fantastic. I’m curious what your storage is, that allows for 25 years of aging. Maybe a future topic?
That’s an upcoming video! 🍷
@@bobpaulinskimasterofwine7234 can’t wait!
@@baggrabb Likely a few weeks off.