Winemaker Notes
This côte blonde-style Côte-Rôtie with 5% Viognier, is the perfect blend of intensity and delicacy. A dark colour with a mineral smoky nose with dark fruits, black olive and pepper all enhanced by a floral component brought by the Viognier. This is a highly aromatic and elegant wine. With well-constructed but perfectly smooth tannins, this Côte-Rôtie is well-rounded on the palate with a beautiful long finish. Smooth and sensual, it expresses an immediate pleasure.
Blend: 95% Syrah, 5% Viognier
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Vernay's 2017 Cote Rotie Blonde du Seigneur features attractive hints of mint and red berries on the nose. It's only medium-bodied, but it's admirably concentrated, with a silky-creamy texture on the palate and charming floral notes that linger on the crisp finish. It should drink well for a decade or more.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Blended with 5% Viognier and from three lieu-dits, all from the south, the 2017 Côte Rôtie Blonde Du Seigneur still has quite a punch with its beautiful black raspberries, smoked earth, spice, and flower-driven aromas and flavors. Rich, medium to full-bodied, beautifully balanced, and elegant, it's slightly tight and closed. Rating :91+
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.