2016 Cote Rotie
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Tasting notes
Deep magenta. Smoke- and spice-accented aromas of fresh black and blue fruits, minerals, candied violet and olive, along with a hint of cracked pepper that builds in the glass. Sweet, palate-staining cassis, blackberry, floral pastille and cola flavors turn livelier with air and take on exotic spice nuances. Bright and distinctly energetic thanks to a spine of smoky minerality. That minerality carries through the impressively long, spicy finish, which features mounting tannins and lingering florality.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Josh Raynolds
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A blend of Syrah from the lieux-dits of le Plomb, Besset, la Viallière and Neve, Saint Cosme's 2016 Cote Rotie was fermented using whole clusters and aged in (mostly) used barrels. It's a sexy, supple Côte Rôtie, with notes of hickory smoke, wood ash and bacon balanced by lush dark-fruit flavors. Slurp it down it over the next 7-8 years while waiting for some of the more tannic examples of the appellation to mature.
The 2016 Côte-Rôtie comes all from the Côte Brune side of the appellation, which is all schist soils. Fermented with no destemming and aged mostly in older barrels, it’s a rock star Côte-Rôtie and offers loads of blackberry fruits, spice, tapenade, cured meats, and pepper. With medium to full body, a deep, layered mid-palate, present tannins, and a huge finish, it needs short-term cellaring but is an undeniably gorgeous Syrah that will have two decades of longevity.
Bright purple. A complex, expansive bouquet evokes candied dark berries, olive, smoked meat and incense, and floral and mineral notes build steadily. Sweet, focused and penetrating on the palate, offering sappy boysenberry, cherry and violet pastille flavors braced by a spine of juicy acidity. Impressively blends concentration and energy and finishes with impressive, gently tannic persistence.