2016 Rasteau Vielles Vignes
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Tasting notes
The full-bodied 2016 Rasteau Vieilles Vignes is plush and ripe, its red and blue fruits dressed up with notes of baking spices. It's a blend of 65% Grenache, 25% Syrah and 10% Mourvèdre, but it comes across as slightly generic.
Critic scores
Average Score
Jancis Robinson MW
Jeb Dunnuck
More reviews and scores
The 2016 Rasteau Vieilles Vignes was one of my favorites in the lineup and this beauty has everything you could want from this appellation. Chocolate, black fruits, espresso and graphite aromas give way to a ripe, building, concentrated 2016 that has fabulous purity. It has plenty of tannins as well, but they’re mostly covered by loads of fruit at the moment. Give bottles 2-3 years and enjoy through 2026. I tasted six whites from Tardieu-Laurent, all of which were noteworthy, and this estate’s relatively modern, yet clean, pure style always produced a terrific white I’d be happy to drink.
65% Grenache (80 years old), 25% Syrah (40 years old), 10% Mourvèdre (40 years old). 66% destemmed. Terroir: Limestone-clay slopes and blue clay. Ageing: 12 months in one- and two-year-old barrels plus 8 months in Foudre (Allier – Tronçais). Bright crimson. Hedonistic, heady, super-ripe nose with great lift and juicy refreshment on the finish. Masses of black fruit flavours overlay some very fine tannins. There’s something (agreeably) medicinal about this. And you could almost drink it straightaway. Although it clearly has a long life ahead of it. (JR)