Sound pretty trad, no?
Very traditional; large scaled and quite earthy and a bright core of fruit. A different expression of Cote Rotie than either Guigal or Gentaz.
Very much to my taste.
Sounds great. Thx Mark
Very traditional producer, he has two cuvees, a Du Plessy (mostly from different Cote blonde sites, with a bit more Viognier) and a Cote brune which can be outstanding (- and also a good Condrieu).
The style is slightly rustic, the wines need time, especially the C.brune, which is earthy/leathery in the youth … but is really nice with time.
Nevertheless although I like the wines they have never really excited me … the are good to very good (with age), but not really stunning in the nose nor singing on the palate …
However the last vintage I´ve tasted was 2005 …
They are similar in style to Bernard Levet but a touch darker and more backwards. Pretty good value and there aren’t too many producers who are as traditional as they are. Full stem inclusion, regardless of vintage, is a general rule unless they’re super green. If you don’t like stemmy Cote Rotie, you probably won’t like it.
They actually have 3 Cote Rotie cuvees now with 2013 being the inaugural vintage of their Cote Blonde bottling.
Extremely helpful, thanks. Exactly my style of CR.
I’ve had the Cuvée du Plessy a few times and been unimpressed so far. Just not a great show of character. Bit muted. Not bad but not good either. I’ll see how my remaining bottles evolve over time.
I was discussing with the producer at a tasting once, and was telling him that Côtes Rôties can sometimes shut down hard between 4 and 8 years after the vintage. He responded by saying that he considered it a failure if his wines shut down at any point in time. He sais that they should always be open for business. I’m not sure what steps he takes to try and ensure that.
I’ve had the Côte Brune 2007 not long ago and it was great. What you’d expect from a very good Côte Rôtie. Not sure about the US price, but the CB is less than 50€ so pretty interesting.
I’ve had the Condrieu a few times, had a good souvenir of the 2010 so bought a few 2011 which were not very interesting, so I stopped buying after that.
Alain
The 1999 Cote Brune was excellent 5 years ago. It is a bit more than 50€ for the current vintages here
In addition to the cuvees already mentioned above, they also ‘rehabilitated’ an abandoned vineyard ‘Le Combard’, a bit further south/down river from Cote Blonde, and have bottled this separately at least since 2012. In some years, like 2013, they did selection within the parcel to bottle as Coeur de Combard and the rest into cuvee du Plessy. My (theoretical) take away is that i would see the cuvee du Plessy as being very entry-level and perhaps a clear step below their vineyard parcels, which might corroborate some posts here in this thread.
From the photos i’ve seen they seem to have invested a significant amount of effort to get this vineyard back up and running, and it seems that it is a domaine in transition with the young Julien Barge being a driving force: together i hope this energy translates into quality of the wine. Not yet tasted, but have some in the cellar as i like what they are aiming for and prices are pretty reasonable for CR. Perhaps I need to crack out and bottle soon and report back…
Rare Wine Co currently has (or as of yesterday had) an offer on the 2012 vintage: 3 bottles of the Plessy, 2 of the Brune and 1 of the Combard for $299, or $50 per. It seemed like a nice way to investigate the producer, which doesn’t show up on US shelves that often. They have been running a series of offers on serious, mostly trad producers. Thus far: Rostaing, Champet, Jamet, Jasmin, and Barge. First rate shop
http://www.rarewineco.com/cote-rotie-a-milestone-offer#the-renaissance-of-côte-rôtie
There is also a Cote Blonde cuvée.
A 1983 Barge C-R was in fine form 3 years ago. Still with that slight stemmy notes (my preference), but quite elegant throughout and I thought it aged well. I’ve a last bottle left from the lot that I think should be drank soon, though.