2002 Cote Rotie

(domaine wine; aged in 40% new oak; bottled in March of 2004) The Ogiers sold off their young-vines juice, about one-third of the original volume; their 2002 cuvee classique includes the juice that would normally be used to make the Belle-Helene and Lancement bottlings): Full red-ruby color. Aromas of currant, brown spices, leather, pepper and oak. Sweet, peppery, intensely flavored and aromatic, but still juicy and rather tightly wound. This could not be anything but Northern Rhone syrah, but I might have picked it blind as a terrific St. Joseph from a successful year. Finishes precise and persistent, with a distinct coolness. The average potential alcohol was about 11. 5%, noted Stephane, and the wine was chaptalized to 12. 5%.