Original: $133.99
-65%$133.99
$46.90The Story
If you want to know what Cote-Rotie tasted like before the appellation got glossy, start here. The Levets farm in Ampuis and do it the old way: old Serine vines on the iron-rich schist of the Cote Brune, whole clusters in the ferment, and a long, patient elevage in large oak and demi-muids, only 10-15% of them new. Nothing shiny. La Chavaroche is the bottling Rosenthal has brought in since the 1983 vintage. 2016 was a cool, classical year in the Northern Rhone, and it shows up here as tension and lift rather than power - black pepper, olive, violets, a whiff of bacon fat, and tannins with real grip. Drinking well now, with plenty of road ahead. Decant it.
Description
If you want to know what Cote-Rotie tasted like before the appellation got glossy, start here. The Levets farm in Ampuis and do it the old way: old Serine vines on the iron-rich schist of the Cote Brune, whole clusters in the ferment, and a long, patient elevage in large oak and demi-muids, only 10-15% of them new. Nothing shiny. La Chavaroche is the bottling Rosenthal has brought in since the 1983 vintage. 2016 was a cool, classical year in the Northern Rhone, and it shows up here as tension and lift rather than power - black pepper, olive, violets, a whiff of bacon fat, and tannins with real grip. Drinking well now, with plenty of road ahead. Decant it.
