2018 Domaine René Rostaing Côte-Rôtie Côte Blonde

Sexy, mineral-laced black raspberry, cherry compote and floral pastille aromas are complemented by exotic spice and olive flourishes. Sappy and precise on the palate, offering vibrant red and dark berry and candied violet flavors underscored by a seam of smoky minerality. Fine-grained, even tannins sneak in very slowly and meld seamlessly on the strikingly long finish, which leaves behind vibrant spice, red fruit liqueur and mineral notes.

A wine that’s going to push the upper limits of my scale, the 2018 Côte Rôtie Côte Blonde has a wonderful sense of opulence and elegance paired with huge minerality and power. Giving up primordial notes of perfectly ripe currants, new saddle leather, spice, and wildflowers, it has a magical texture, huge richness and depth, loads of tannins, and a huge finish. It made my pulse jump. This was another power-packed lineup from the Rostaing Family, and you can’t go wrong with any of these new releases. The 2017s show the sunny yet also elegant style of the vintage and have beautifully polished, ripe tannins. These wines offer pleasure even today but do your best to give bottles 4-5 years of bottle age, especially the single vineyard releases. Looking at the 2018s, these are largely in the same style yet have slightly more concentrated, structured profiles. My money is on the 2018s requiring slightly more bottle age, but I’ll report on those from bottle this time next year. In addition to the Côte Rôties, don’t miss a chance to try the Languedoc and Collines Rhodaniennes releases. Both represent terrific wines as well as value.

The most tannic of the "big three" bottlings this year, the 2018 Cote Rotie la Cote Blonde features elegant hints of mixed herbs entwined around bold boysenberry fruit. It's medium to full-bodied, with plentiful fine-grained tannins that firm up on the long finish. Embryonic, but oh so promising, it should blossom in another five years or so.