Winemaker Notes
This wine pairs well with fine meats, roast beef, water games, truffles and spicy stews. It is recommended to open the bottle one to three hours before serving and decanted if the wine has been laid down for more than five years.
Blend: 100% Syrah
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
Saturated ruby-red. Deeply pitched dark berry, cherry liqueur, licorice and woodsmoke scents show fine clarity and acquire oak spice and floral pastille qualities with air. Juicy and expansive on the palate, offering intense blackberry, cherry-vanilla, fruitcake and salty olive flavors that are sharpened by a jolt of spicy cracked pepper. Shows excellent depth and power; finishes smoky and very long, with youthfully gripping tannins sneaking in late.
Range:94-95 -
Jeb Dunnuck
A beautiful wine, the 2020 Côte Rôtie Seigneur De Maugiron has that classic Côte Rôtie elegance and polish, with plenty of black raspberry fruits, notes of bacon fat and spring flowers, medium to full body, ripe tannins, and a great finish.
Range: 92-94 -
Wine Spectator
This has an earthy, old-school feel, with licorice root, blackberry and cassis coursing alongside warm graphite, leather and cumin. Gains a jolt of freshness from anise and menthol accents, and there is impressive depth toward the lengthy finish. Best from 2025 through 2035.
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Wine & Spirits
Muscular and rich, this wine's broad wash of blueberry flavors has a violet accent around the edges, while tannins give just enough shape to the wine. Its peppery, earthy savor outlasts the fruit, which lasts plenty long already.
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.