1985 Domaine Rostaing, Cote Rotie, Cote Blonde 1x750ml

Robert Parker 95

The 1985 Cote Rotie Cote Blonde was a stunner! Perfectly balanced and fully mature, with thrilling notes of coffee bean, tobacco leaf, smoked herbs and sweet blackberry-styled fruit, it flows onto the palate with full-bodied richness, no hard edges and a seamless, polished, pretty style that’s hard to resist. This is gorgeous, and I’d drink bottles over the coming 2-4 years, but it should hold for longer as well. Rene Rostaing’s Cote Rotie Cote Blonde is the smallest production of Rene’s three cuvees (Ampodium, Landonne and Cote Blonde) and comes from his roughly 1 hectare (roughly 2.5 acres) of holdings in the Cote Blonde lieu-dit. This vines here were planted both in 1934, and then later in 1970-1971. It’s the only cuvee to incorporate Viognier, and this variety makes up roughly 3-5% of the blend. While Rene destemmed more in the past, today, he keeps destemming to a minimum and aging occurs in mostly older demi-muid, with 15-20% being new. There’s a scant 500 cases in most vintages, and it’s certainly one of the Icon wines from the northern Rhone. [Jeb Dunnuck, 01/02/2015]

Anticipated maturity: 2014-2020