Winemaker Notes
Very deep and black with satiny tints. The nose is dominated by notes of graphite and cold smoke, and then opens up to notes of bramble leaves and mixed berries. Chiseled tannins and notes of black pepper and roasting over a saline finish. This exceptional Syrah shows how elegance and femininity express themselves in a wine with extreme finesse and great depth.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
From a rocky, mica-schist lieu-dit that's only recently been showing up on single-vineyard wines, Chapoutier's 2017 Cote Rotie Neve is a bold, full-bodied and powerful example of the appellation. Blueberry and boysenberry fruit is couched in rich, velvety tannins, followed by a long, lingering finish. Impressive.
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Wine Spectator
This is tightly focused, with a well-delineated core of cassis, damson plum and bitter cherry fruit that has an almost piercing feel, backed by sleek iron, savory and bay leaf accents. The long finish lets the iron edge play out, adding a mouthwatering note in the end. Best from 2023 through 2040.
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Jeb Dunnuck
From a vineyard just near Viallière and Grandes Places, the 2017 Côte Rôtie Neve is brought up all in barrels, 25% or less being new, which is the same élevage as the Mordorée. Nevertheless, it shows a very different personality compared to the Mordorée, with more minerality, austerity, tannins, and structure. Blackberries, currants, scorched earth, and graphite notes as well as incredible minerality all give way to a backward, concentrated, structured, beast of a Côte Rôtie. There are just 181 cases made, but it’s stunning stuff worth seeking out.
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.