critic reviews
Saturated ruby. Displays intensely perfumed red and blue fruit preserves, baking spices, candied violet and licorice scents; a smoky mineral quality builds in the glass. Plush, sweet and broad on the palate, offering deeply concentrated, smoke-laced cherry-vanilla, boysenberry and fruitcake flavors that spread out and pick up a spicy nuance with aeration. Manages to be powerful but elegant as well, showing impressive balance and velvety, even tannins that shape a very long, floral- and dark fruit-driven finish. One-third new oak.
Always a blend of the Cote Blonde and Cote Brune lieux-dits, the 2018 Cote Rotie la Mordoree features scents of pencil shavings, raspberries and some tea-like florals. It's medium to full-bodied and silky-textured, but it's concentrated at the same time, with a long, crisp finish that hints at violets.