Our regular group got together at my house back a while back to taste through some absolutely delicious bottles of Cote Rotie. Everyone brought great food to eat, and even the lame host’s lamb was good despite running out of fuel for the gas grill and having to rely on his wife’s creativity to finish it under the broiler. Anyway, things got kicked off with a nice bottle of sparkling wine, courtesy of Tom and Sandy.
1996 Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin Champagne Brut La Grande Dame. Our first wine of the night sports a pleasing, finessed bouquet of soft chalk, biscuit, lemon peel, flinty smoke, orange zest and yellow fruit—with a nice little accent of peppermint dust, as well. It is denser and more masculine in the mouth than the elegant nose would suggest—with full flavors of lemon, pear, apple and yeast in a rounded package with good palate presence. The finish is very even-handed and lengthy, and the wine as a whole has an effortless balance and grace for its muscular fullness.
1983 Pierre Barge Côte-Rôtie. Wow, what a bouquet this wine throws at you—ever-changing, swirling and morphing in complex layers of funky, savory and fruity aromas. It kicks in right away with overt scents of dried red currants, cranberries, menthol, iron filings and dried blood. After a while, though, on comes an intense blast of bacon and bacon fat smell that then stays with the wine the rest of the evening. My notes also mention white pepper, animal fur, pan drippings, and something that evokes memories of those wax bottle candies from my youth—just crazy good stuff. In the mouth, the tannins are well-resolved but the acidity is pretty strong and right up front—giving the wine a fresh and taut feeling. The fruit is tangy and lifted, with red currant, cranberry and citrus elements most notable. The finish is a bit herb-tinged and the fruit turns a bit more to sour cherry, but it stays clean and intense and lasting all the way through and for the duration of the evening. On most nights, it could be a wine of the night, but tonight it was my personal #4 favorite.
1985 Domaine Jamet Côte-Rôtie. From the very outset, this wine smells intensely of sweaty horse, funky barnyard shtank, old tanned leather, black olives, baked earth, red beets, red currants and dark cranberries. The barnyard elements keep coming on strong and maybe even intensify with time, eventually turning off a number of our tasters, but for me this is just an amazingly complex, funky bouquet that is utterly captivating to sniff. In the mouth, the wine is drinking right at peak, in my opinion—with just a bit of tannin and a savory, complex palate impression of cracked pepper, bacon fat and baked earth that has great balance despite a fairly high level of acidity at times. It is feral, funky, complex and quite delicious. My WOTN.
1983 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie Brune et Blonde. Man, there is a lot going on with the bouquet of our third wine—with aromas ranging from cigar ash, animal fur, fireplace soot, dried blood, bacon fat, white pepper and hickory smoke to red currants, cherries, persimmon and dried red flower petals. In the mouth, it is totally smooth and wonderfully easy-flowing, but with an excellent degree of grip and a pinpoint fine acidity. There are no real tannins at play, but there is a decidedly spicy zest to the wine, especially on the vibrant finish. It is just an exciting and lovely wine in every way. My #3 wine of the night.
1998 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie Brune et Blonde. There is a real big jump forward here in time and it shows in the aromatic profile, which is much more about dark cherry and black raspberry fruit, but also some minor supporting notes of herbs and earth, rawhide leather and ash. In the mouth, it is very expansive and mouthfilling, with a lot of black currant and blackberry fruit carried along with a lot of vigor. There are some savory bits hiding in the corners and the tannins are not as aggressive as one might expect. Overall, though, it feels youthful, well-fruited, lively and well-packaged with just enough refinement to make me feel good about checking back on it in just a few more years’ time.
1999 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie Brune et Blonde. It could just be the company it is keeping, but the 1999 comes across as more internationally-styled, with toasty oak, vanilla and polished blue and black fruit aromas leading the way on the nose. Over time, it does fold in some shoe leather and bacon fat aromas in the background, but mostly it is the fruit, smoke and oak up front. In the mouth, it is very exuberant and turns up the volume with lots of red and purple fruit and a good dose of furry tannins. It is full and a bit brash at times, but is still pretty decently-balanced and drinking well. Still, for my taste, I would wait on this a while.
1988 Rene Rostaing Côte-Rôtie Cote Blonde. Here, the expansive aromas of red currants, red flowers, fennel, tomato plants and peaty earth are masculine and savory in nature. It is extremely creamy in texture on the palate, and comes across as rather plush and matted, with plenty of body and fullness of fruit to go with the pliant tannins still hanging around on the finish. There is a lovely spiciness here, as well, and the wine is a pleasure to drink.
1996 Rene Rostaing Côte-Rôtie Cote Blonde. The bouquet here is absolutely luscious, creamy and rich in tone—chock full of plum, blueberry and dark cherry liqueur aromas riding atop notes of creosote, tar oil and mocha. This is just large-framed and broad, totally filling the nostrils. In the mouth, it delivers loads of flavor and fruit but also a solid dose of fine-toned tannins. A solid streak of acidity keeps it balanced, but otherwise its personality is more tipped toward lush and full-volumed—featuring a flavor profile of cherry liqueur, plum, chocolate and mocha. It is great right now, but will be better in 5 years, I’m sure.
1998 Michel & Stéphane Ogier Côte-Rôtie. Ooh, this is awesome on the nose—providing a perfect combination of aged complexity and youthful freshness. Scents of leather, toasty stems, tilled earth, iron filings, black lava, black and green olives, blood, bacon fat, licorice rope and creamy black cherries are beautifully layered and provide a classic Old World profile. It is a delight to sniff, drawing the taster back time and again. It is savory and tangy on the palate, with a rather dry feel to it. The tannins are a bit sneaky, but definitely play a role in that dry character. Otherwise, it shows off beautiful fruit and earth balance, with outstanding acidic twang. It is vital and alive, with classic structure and a flavor profile of iodine, black cherry and cool earth. It is going to be classic in a few years and is in fact gorgeous now. My #2 wine of the night.
1998 Tardieu-Laurent Côte-Rôtie. This wine features a broad and fairly internationally-styled bouquet, with fruity aromas of orange zest, persimmon, blueberries, black currants and a purple pixie stick dust sort of confectionery note. It brings in more rust and earth elements over time and ends up feeling fairly layered and complex by evening’s end. It sports a sweet attack on the palate, and then fleshes out with voluminous purple and blue fruit flavors, chocolate and a little underpinning of ham. It is creamy, rich and dense, with a juicy and exuberant finish to it. It is definitely young and is only showing nascent palate complexity, but the texture and richness of fruit is a nice way to finish off the tasting with something a bit different but still quite tasty. My advice, though, is to hold off another 4 or 5 years on it.
-Michael