Domaine Clusel-Roch Cote-Rotie Les Grandes Places 2018
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Wilfred
Wong
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2018 Cluset-Roch Côte-Rôtie Les Grandes Places is remarkable and rich. TASTING NOTES: This wine shines with powerful aromas and flavors of black fruit and savory spices. Enjoy it with braised beef dishes. (Tasted: November 8, 2021, San Francisco, CA)
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2015-
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Robert
Parker
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Robert
Parker
Rene's son Gilbert decided to continue in his father's winemaking footsteps and completed his enological studies in 1977. The domaine, however, was too small to provide income for two families. Gilbert consequently chose to rent some vineyards and begin producing his own wine, while at the same time helping his father both in the vineyards and in the chai.
When Rene Clusel retired in 1987, his vines were taken over by Gilbert. For the first time, the parcel inLes Grandes Places was bottled separately. Two years later Domaine Clusel became Domaine Clusel-Roch, incorporating the name of both partners, Gilbert Clusel and his wife Brigitte Roch. This also gave the domaine an identity of its own.
Today the property remains tiny: Just 3.5 hectares in Cote Rotie and 1/2 hectare in Condrieu. The chai, built in 1992 in Verenay, is attached to their house and just next to the house of Rene Clusel. Being on the side of the sloped hill of Cote Rotie allows Gilbert and Brigitte to take advantage of gravity and naturally treat their fruit gently by avoiding the usage of pumps at vinification time.
Marked by an unmistakable deep purple hue and savory aromatics, Syrah makes an intense, powerful and often age-worthy red. Native to the Northern Rhône, Syrah achieves its maximum potential in the steep village of Hermitage and plays an important component in the Red Rhône Blends of the south, adding color and structure to Grenache and Mourvèdre. Syrah is the most widely planted grape of Australia and is important in California and Washington. Sommelier Secret—Such a synergy these three create together, the Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre trio often takes on the shorthand term, “GSM.”
The cultivation of vines here began with Greek settlers who arrived in 600 BC. Its proximity to Vienne was important then and also when that city became a Roman settlement but its situation, far from the negociants of Tain, led to its decline in more modern history. However the 1990s brought with it a revival fueled by one producer, Marcel Guigal, who believed in the zone’s potential. He, along with the critic, Robert Parker, are said to be responsible for the zone’s later 20th century renaissance.
Where the Rhone River turns, there is a build up of schist rock and a remarkable angle that produces slopes to maximize the rays of the sun. Cote Rotie remains one of the steepest in viticultural France. Its varied slopes have two designations. Some are dedicated as Côte Blonde and others as Côte Brune. Syrahs coming from Côte Blonde are lighter, more floral, and ready for earlier consumption—they can also include up to 20% of the highly scented Viognier. Those from Côte Brune are more sturdy, age-worthy and are typically nearly 100% Syrah. Either way, a Cote Rotie is going to have a particularly haunting and savory perfume, expressing a more feminine side of the northern Rhone.