WTN: Gentaz

It has been awhile since I have had a wine like this and, of course, these days I can’t afford them. But yesterday, an old friend brought over a bottle that carried me away:

1990 Gentaz-Dervieux, Côte- Rôtie Côte Brune Cuvée Réservée:
12.5% alcohol; a truly harmonious but complex nose with warmed red fruits, smoked bacon, pepper and hints of flowers and earth; medium bodied with enough grip to make me think this has years left, flavors that follow the nose and the texture of worsted wool; lovely balance and a long, intricate finish. There is such a sense of completeness here and yet still some rusticity in the tannins. Benchmark Côte- Rôtie.
A life list wine for me; very, very special.
Thanks Dave.

Best, Jim

I have never seen a wine from this producer, probably could not afford it either!

Ah, the good old days when I actually owned bottles of these. Not many, but I remember them well.

Lou, is it still family owned and what kind of production do they have?

Lou, is it still family owned and what kind of production do they have?

I think his nephew Renee Rostaing took it over and ripped out the old vines and replanted. The Gentaz wines are very rare and gold is cheaper. Maybe Hoke can chime in and probably knows more .

Family owned - technically yes, as the land is now in the hands of his nephew Rene Rostaing (who is NOT making anywhere near the same caliber of wine from those vineyards).

Production - Marius Gentaz-Dervieux retired in 1993, so there's not been anything produced for a while. The wines are rare as hell and stupidly expensive - there's a lot of 3 bottles of the '89 going on Spectrum (fodder for speculation as to whether it's even Gentaz or something else), with a bid of 900/btl (before premiums, etc).

As for your note Jim - I agree fully, I've been fortunate to try Gentaz on a couple of occasions (and have a single bottle of the '86 that I'm treasuring for some special dinner soon), but each time the wines have stood out as a unique and incredibly classical/traditional expression of Cote-Rotie. Special wines indeed, on the same level as the best old Chave wines I've had, or my most memorable Verset Cornas bottles.

[David M. Bueker]

Rostaing is making a very different style of wine; one that has found favor with critics, but scorn from hardcore geeks.

As for your note Jim - I agree fully, I've been fortunate to try Gentaz on a couple of occasions (and have a single bottle of the '86 that I'm treasuring for some special dinner soon).

Like my next visit to the East Coast, right? FWIW, the transfer of land from Marius Gentaz to René Rostaing is one of the great vinous tragedies of the past 25 years. Compare that to Trollat's vineyards ending up in Pierre Gonon's hands and Noël Verset's ending up (partly) in Thierry Allemand's and the scope of the tragedy only increases.

Mark Lipton