2014 Cote Rotie
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Tasting notes
Youthful violet. Intensely perfumed aromas of red and dark berry preserves, cured tobacco, licorice and olive show excellent focus. Stains the palate with intense, appealingly sweet boysenberry and cherry flavors that become deeper and spicier with air. Delivers a solid punch but comes off graceful and precise, closing with impressive, smoky persistence and sneaky tannins.
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Josh Raynolds
Josh Raynolds
More reviews and scores
(made, as usual, from vineyards in the Côte Brune): Opaque ruby. Vibrant, sharply focused black and blue fruits on the nose, complicated by peppery spice and mineral notes. Lithe and precise, showing strong lift to the intense blueberry, violet pastille and spicecake flavors. Picks up a smoky quality with air and finishes sweet, seamless and very long, with sneaky tannins adding shape and grip.
The 2014 Cote Rotie is a solid step up from the Crozes Hermitage and St Joseph releases. Fermented with 100% stems and aged in 30% new barrels, it has a crazily perfumed bouquet of rose garden, peppery, stems, black raspberries and sweet oak. This gives way to a medium-bodied, nicely concentrated Cote Rotie that has solid mid-palate depth, good freshness and a great finish. It should have 10-15 yeas. of overall longevity.