TN: Dom. Rostaing - 2001 Cote Rotie - Cuvee Classique

Served with herb-crusted roast chicken.

A bit of reduction on the nose that persisted, but not enough to be objectionable to any veteran Northern Rhone drinker. A bit tart when first decanted. With an hour or so and the meal, the wine fleshed out, however. Very nicely balanced at that point, a decent amount of plummy, maturing syrah fruit, but not a layered wine. Balanced, clean, but not very complex. 89-ish.

Writing this, I realize that the wine never demanded the attention of the ITB friend with whom I shared this. It was pleasant, but it never moved us to discuss it. I think that kind of sums up the wine.

At 16 years, I won’t hold my other bottle. I don’t think there’s enough depth for this to improve with more time. Better to take advantage of the modest pleasure it provides now.

I feel like this note belongs in the mature/lesser vintage vs. great youthful wine thread.

For me this note sums up the 2001 Jasmin also. A good wine but not “that great”. On the other hand, a 2007 Les Elotins from Billon for Father’s Day was delicious and discussion-able but not “great”. [cheers.gif]

I had the two wines referred to in this thread when they were young and my notes reflect that they were good, not great, when young either.

In 2010 I had the 01 Rosataing Cote Blonde and my note described a big age worthy wine. Could this vineyard make that much of a difference.

Probably. The “Cuvee Classique” was the base bottling, which has been labeled as “Ampodium” since the 2009 vintage. It is from 13 sites, but not from La Landonne or the sites used for the Cote Blonde, Rostaing’s more prestigious bottlings, according to Jeff Leve’s site. FYI, The Cote Blonde isn’t a single vineyard; it’s a blend from seven vineyards on the Cote Blonde slope.

1st: yes, the vineyards make a big difference, the “Blonde” is Renés best vineyard (at least until he resurrected the “Brune” (old vineyard of Albert Gentaz) in 2013 … the “Classic” (later Ampodium) is the basic cuvee and can sometime be very fine (like in 1991 and 1999), but it combines better and less good sites … and especially in 2001 also some not perfectly ripe grapes …

2nd: 2001 was (IMHO) not a really fine vintage in Cote Rotie, many wines (Jamet, too) were on the wild (sauvage) side with a lot of structure and not really sweet tannins … the best (ripes) wines like the “Blonde” will ultimately reach a certain balance, but many are close to maturity, but not really mellow or sweet …

I opened by second and last bottle of this on Monday. This time I decanted it longer – three hours or so ahead. I’ve felt that I didn’t so some of my Northern Rhones justice, decanting them for two short a period.

It was pretty much the same story as the bottle I posted on above two years ago: balanced but not that much of interest on the nose. Nothing special. Like the other bottle, somehow this never moved my wine-loving friend or me to even remark on it.

I wish I’d been buying more and better CR in this era. Now I have to wait on my 2010 Levets.

I guess my question is why does it have to move you and why would you expect it to move you? This was never a higher end wine and was never priced like that. Why not just enjoy it as a fully mature Cote-rotie and be quite happy with that?

Keith, it seems straightforward that John made a choice at some point to buy this over whatever else was available in the market at the time that would have been better, with the hope it would be great with age. Of course. We all do that. And we all have relative disappointments. Sounds like this was one of them.

Despite current trends, when the 2001s were released, I would say that Jamet, Allemand, and Verset by CW, among most other N Rhône wines, were not considered “higher end”. And were not getting high end prices. Well, you know how that has developed…

Hi Jayson,

But this was never priced anywhere close to the wines you just mentioned. When I started working retail back in 07 (so there were 01 Northern Rhones on the shelves. I would know because that’s where I got all of my 01 La Chapelle), yes Jamet was languishing on the shelves, but it was still a $75 wine at a major multi-store retailer that could afford to have the markup be lower than an independent store. Not cheap, but it was towards the higher end of Cote-Rotie that wasn’t a Guigal LaLa. Whereas this wine was likely $35ish when John bought it (it was available for $55 on the shelf back in 09 for whatever was the current vintage at the time, maybe 05 iirc). Even citing Levet, that was super under the radar and when I discovered it in 2010, it was still priced higher than what the Classique was priced at then (a different story today for sure if you can find Levet at retail).

All I’m saying is that I would fully understand the criticism if he had bought the Rostaing Blonde or LaLandonne. But, the classique (now ampodium) was never intended to be anything but an “entry-level” cote-rotie from Rostaing and his note reads exactly like that. To go to a different region, I wouldn’t expect a Brezza Barolo to be anything other than an a mature example down the road and then be disappointed when it’s just that and compare it to something like, say, Brovia Garblet Sue.

I agree the '01s from CR are good to very good but it is not a great overall vintage like 1999. Better than 2000 and 2004. Never been much of a fan of the Rostaing style and have tried so many it is clear they just do not do it for me. Not unlike Chapoutier. Not that I dislike either producer, just that they don’t wow or speak to me at all.

FWIW, I’ve had excellent luck with the 2001 Ogier CR. The regular bottling really did well that year.

Maybe I’m misremembering but Verset in 2004 was still $30-35, Allemand $35-45, and Jamet around $45-55 but one could find it lower. Any case, my metapoint is there is no question in my mind there was better wine in CR and Cornas in the Rostaing price range.

And the nascent AFWE knew this wine sucked.

Maybe not a surprise? Lesser wine from unremarkable producer. As for vintage, I’d take 01 over 99 for most producers. 99 is the warmer, overrated vintage.

I can’t speak for the prices where you were, but I strongly doubt those were the prices and then saw the jump to what I saw when I was on the floor in 07. Verset has only very recently been a hot property and I remember being offered the 05 and 06 for around $75-80 just a few years after 2004. Granted, Verset may have been at the prices you are mentioning because it was pretty underground for a good while (but, then why is someone kicking themselves for not knowing about it in 04?), but I was paying over $100 for Allemand just a few years after 2004. While it could be that it saw a big price jump between 04-07/08, I kinda doubt it as I’ve always seen it priced on the elite end of Northern Rhone and it has now fully taken off in the past 5 years. I was relatively able to get back vintage Allemand up until around 2012-2014 and I was easily able to find Allemand in 08 by looking in the right places.

Just to chime in here, I get what people are saying but Cote-Rotie is by definition a high-end wine and it’s not unreasonable to hope for a great showing, even from an “entry-level” cuvee. I don’t get the sense he was expecting a religious experience.

I thought Verset’s last vintage was 05. At any rate, long before then the wine was not up to the standards of what it had been in previous decades, since Verset had sold off most of his holdings. It’s true you could find Allemand pretty easily until just a few years ago. 2010 Allemand was the first time it crossed the $100 barrier here in the US.

um, I live in Chicago




David,


And Barolo by all definitions is high-end, but that doesn’t change the point I made in comparing a Brezza Barolo to Brovia Garblet Sue.

Allemand was $25-30 in Paris in Feb. 2004 when I was there and price had only recently started to move in US. Not even close to $100 in US. The jump did occur in the period you stated or after. I bought 2004 Chaillot for $55 per for a half case in 2007 from Flickinger.

I bought 1999 Verset for $27.99 and believe 2001 was only marginally higher on release. I was offered 2004 in 2010 for $30 from Flickinger. Now kicking myself for not pouncing.

Jamet, my memory is less clear on but we used to get good pricing in NYC and I bought some in Europe in the relevant period for ~$30-35 so doesn’t count re: US pricing.

In any case IMO Rostaing seriously underperformed its potential in that period.

I didn’t expect it to be profound, but it was just boring, without much of any CR character, so I think I’m entitled to be unhappy about that. Particularly at $49 in 2007 (at Astor).

I’ve never had a Rostaing wine that sent me and have been a bit puzzled why his reputation was as strong as it was and why his prices have remained high. (I’ve never seen any fans here, obviously.) Every so often I bought a couple of bottles to see if I’ve been missing something. By 01 he had cut way back on his use of new oak, so I gave it a whirl.

I’m now down to two bottles of '11 Ampodium. I won’t hold out high hopes for those.