Domaine Rostaing Cote-Rotie "Cote Blonde" red 2018

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate (Joe Czerwinski, déc. 2019) : 97-99/100. The most tannic of the "big three" bottlings this year, the 2018 Cote Rotie la Cote Blonde features elegant hints of mixed herbs entwined around bold boysenberry fruit. It's medium to full-bodied, with plentiful fine-grained tannins that firm up on the long finish. Embryonic, but oh so promising, it should blossom in another five years or so. Drink date 2025-2045.

Young Pierre Rostaing has been on a roll, making some of the best wines in Côte Rôtie from his family's choice parcels in La Landonne, La Côte Blonde and Côte Brune. It's my impression that the quality of the blended Ampodium is also reaching new heights, although it cannot compete with the near perfection achieved by the single-vineyard wines. In 2018, Rostaing explained: The months of May and June were wet, but there was enough time between the rain events to allow effective treatments. Come the first week of harvest, given the high temperatures on September 2 (30 degrees to 35 degrees Celsius), Rostaing said that by September 5, the team recognized that they needed to get the grapes into the winery as quickly as possible. The 2018s, said Rostaing, are "rich, aromatic and expressive." The (mostly) bottled 2017s come across as more tannic and muscular than the 2016s, a difference Rostaing attributes to yields that were about 15% to 20% lower than the preceding vintage. The top wines should easily last for two decades. Finally, don't neglect the IGP and Languedoc offerings being made by Rostaing. Sure, by comparison to the family's top offerings from Côte Rôtie, they're mere teases, but they're tasty, fun-to-drink wines that typically sell for realistic prices.