2019 Cote Rotie Les Rochains
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Tasting notes
Opaque ruby. Powerful, oak-spiced black and blue fruit aromas show distinctly primary character and pick up hints of smoky minerals, olive, licorice and potpourri with aeration. Broad and fleshy on the palate, offering lush blackberry, cherry-cola and fruitcake flavors and suggestions of vanilla and smoky bacon. Shows excellent clarity and powerful, spicy thrust on the impressively long finish, which is framed by pliant, steadily building tannins.
Critic scores
Jeb Dunnuck
Josh Raynolds
More reviews and scores
The only wine from this estate from the Côte Brune side of the appellation, the 2019 Côte Rôtie Les Rochins sports a dense purple hue to go with brilliant aromatics of darker, almost blue fruits as well as notes of crushed stone, graphite, ground pepper, and violets. Rich and medium to full-bodied, with remarkable purity and precision and a sensational finish, it’s another tremendous wine from this family.
The Garon family has owned this parcel for more than 200 years, but they only replanted it in the 1990s. The 2019 Cote Rotie les Rochins incorporates 20% whole bunches and 30% new oak. The smoke, toast and mocha-laden scents work well with the berry and black-olive fruit in this medium to full-bodied effort. A bit open-knit and coarsely textured, it could use a little time to settle down, but it still looks like a wine to drink on the younger side.
An expressive, highly perfumed bouquet evokes ripe dark berries, cherry, licorice and olive, and a smoky mineral flourish adds energy. Fleshy and broad on the palate, offering alluringly sweet black/blue fruit flavors that unfold slowly on the back half. Rich yet lively, showing superb clarity and youthfully gripping tannins on the long, sappy, blue-fruit-driven finish.