Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
Glass-staining violet color. Pungent black raspberry and cherry-cola scents are complemented by suggestions of potpourri, olive and smoky minerals. Silky and focused on the palate, offering spice-tinged red and blue fruit flavors that show bright delineation and firm tension. Lively and gently chewy in texture, finishing with a bright, mineral drive and harmonious, slow-building tannins.
Barrel Sample: 93-95 -
Wine Spectator
Moving to the 2020s, the 2020 Côte Rôtie Les Schistes has a terrific sense of elegance and purity, with medium-bodied aromas and flavors of smoked red and black fruits, ground pepper, iron, and bacon fat. With silky tannins, flawless balance, and a great finish, it can be drunk any time over the coming decade or more.
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.