2018 Stéphane Ogier Côte-Rôtie Bertholon
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Tasting notes
Glistening ruby. Highly perfumed aromas of ripe blackberry, cherry preserves, Moroccan spices and potpourri pick up olive and licorice notes with air. Juicy, densely packed and appealingly sweet, offering palate-coating black and blue fruit preserve, spicecake and violet pastille flavors that become livelier as the wine opens up. The floral and spice notes repeat firmly on an impressively long, chewy finish that features youthfully firming tannins and spicy black pepper and smoked meat notes. 40% whole clusters and 20% new oak.
Critic scores
Average Score
Jeb Dunnuck
Josh Raynolds
More reviews and scores
The 2018 Côte Rôtie Bertholon comes from a site just above Les Grandes Places and a slightly flatter, more clay-driven terroir. It too was brought up in used barrels. Cassis, pepper, graphite, and some exotic violet and floral notes define the bouquet, and it’s full-bodied and packs plenty of muscle on the palate, with ripe, velvety tannins as well as a great finish.
Impressively elegant for this site—situated above Les Grandes Places and one I normally find more rugged in style—the 2018 Côte Rôtie Bertholon offers up hints of dried herbs, strawberries and raspberries on the nose. It's full-bodied and concentrated, but unusually silky and fine, with a long, lingering finish.
An exotically perfumed bouquet evokes black/blue fruit preserves, allspice, smoky bacon, potpourri and incense. Densely packed and impressively animated on the palate, offering intense blueberry, cassis, cherry liqueur and violet pastille flavors that open up steadily through the midpalate. The floral and spice notes carry emphatically through the impressively long, gently tannic finish, which leaves smoky mineral and floral notes behind. One-third whole clusters.