2016 Côte-Rôtie La Landonne Domaine Rostaing

Subtle notes of baking spices frame hints of tea, olives and raspberries on the nose of the 2016 Cote Rotie la Landonne. A paragon of elegance, it's medium to full-bodied, but silky from start to lingering finish. It's a wine that's pretty much guaranteed to make even the steeliest curmudgeon smile, as it's so bright, ephemeral and luscious. It's not the rich, ripe wine the 2015 is, but it's suave, complex and long.

Aged in demi-muids - a maximum of 10% new oak - with no destemming. It has that austere mineral character on the nose so typical of La Landonne. It is rounded, with good concentration and ripeness, matched with ample, piercing acidity and bristling with fine, fresh tannins. Its intensity comes primarily from its structure and mineral content rather than the fruit, and it is incredibly energetic and lively on the palate. Powerful and very well balanced in a structural, chiselled style, this is in an altogether different league from his Ampodium, with a good balance of fruit, flowers and mineral scents.Drinking Window 2022 - 2033.

The 2016 Côte Rôtie La Landonne is another brilliant wine that has textbook La Landonne notes of powerful, ripe black fruits, smoked meats, peppery herbs, tobacco, and beef blood. Full-bodied, beautifully concentrated, layered, and structured, it has the elegant, finesse style of the vintage front and center, yet is still a powerful, masculine, structured wine (which is this site). Give bottles 4-5 years of bottle age and it will cruise for two decades.

To be released in February 2020. Smoky, sparky nose. Some vegetal notes but superb fruit richness to match, and awesome structure too - such vigour and length! Very impressive. Sleek, polished, complete. (RH) Drink 2020-2036.

made from vines that are over 100 years old) Lurid ruby. Heady aromas of ripe blueberry, black raspberry, incense, olive and candied flowers are sharpened by cracked pepper and mineral flourishes. Sweet and energetic on the palate, offering intense dark fruit liqueur and spicecake flavors and suggestions of licorice and cola that build with air. Lush but surprisingly structured thanks to a core of juicy acidity, as is typical of the best wines of the vintage. Building tannins shape the sappy dark fruit on the impressively long, juicy finish, which leaves a sexy floral note behind.

Her har vi fat i et lidt af et kanonslag fra en af Nordrhonens bedste marker, La Landonne, og en af de bedste producenter, Rene Rostaing. Det er en vin, som er ganske præget af træog fadlagring lige i øjeblikket med et næsten bordeauxagtigt udtryk, hvor Rostaing plejer at minde mig om Bourgogne. Her er dybde i næsen med peber, røg og lakrids, masser af koncentration og tannin i munden.