2020 Rene Rostaing Cote-Rotie La Vialliere

Côte Rôtie La Viallière: This idea extended to Albert Dervieux’s famed La Viallière parcel, from which Pierre intends to release a scant few bottles when the year and these ancient vines allow. Also with a throwback label of Dervieux-Thaize. Rated 98 by Wine Advocate While this vineyard suffered immensely from frost in the spring of 2021, the 2020 Cote Rotie la Viaillere looks amazing. Marked by vibrant, intense notes of purple raspberries and violets, this is full-bodied, rich and velvety, with wonderfully fine tannins and a nearly never-ending finish. While La Viallière is not my favorite lieu-dit, this is truly special. Rated 97 by Decanter Beautifully detailed, floral, violet-scented nose; totally classic, tender and charming. Medium- to full-bodied, with cooling, fresh blackberry fruit. Super-fine, plentiful but elegant tannins and the little bitter kick is classic Viallière. This is exceptional and will provide a lot of pleasure. Four weeks in tank, 18 months in oak (limited new oak), with natural yeasts and as many stems as possible. Rated 97 by Jeb Dunnuck From a great terroir in the northern part of Côte Rôtie, the 2020 Côte Rôtie Le Viallière is another perfumed, mineral-laced 2020, offering a beautiful nose of darker raspberries, camphor, violets, woodsmoke, and grilled bread. Possessing huge minerality, it's medium to full-bodied, has a tight, compact mouthfeel, lots of tannins, and a great finish. It needs to be hidden in the back of the cellar for 7-8 years if possible. The Rostaing estate dates to 1971 when René Rostaing– a Notary by trade – began tending a few plots of family vineyards. He had the perfect role model to guide him into a career of classical winemaking: Marius Gentaz, his uncle. Over the next few years, René took advantage not only of his uncle’s mentoring, but of historically low vineyard prices, to acquire a prized half acre each in the Côte Blonde and La Landonne lieux-dits. And when he married, he acquired a second traditional role model, his father-in-law, Albert Dervieux. Dervieux retired in 1989 and Gentaz followed four years later, giving René a further ten acres of very old vines in some of the appellation’s top sites. This treasury of vineyards launched René’s estate into the stratosphere. The vineyard expansion also enabled René to quit his day job and to devote himself full time to winemaking. Over the next 25+ years, he crafted a sequence of masterful wines that honored the legacy of his illustrious forebearers. In 2015, René’s son, Pierre, took the reins at an estate that boasts 20+ acres of some the finest vineyards in and around Côte Rôtie. Having grown up with tutelege of classical wines from this revered appellation, he has maintained his father’s deep reverence for Côte Rôtie’s traditions. Pierre was also able to experiment further through stages in Washington, California and in France. In the vineyards, obviously all the work has to be done painstakingly by hand, given the steepness of the slopes. At harvest, the Rostaings endeavor to obtain mature fruit, but never to a degree of over-ripeness. For example, if you’re looking for 2003 or 2009 Northern Rhônes with no hint of sur-maturité, there are no better choices than Rostaing Côte Rôties. In the cellar, René was never afraid to use technology if it would help him make even more authentic Côte Rôtie. So, in the late 1990s, René acquired horizontal, rotary fermentation tanks, though not for the same purpose as virtually everyone else. While modernists—most famously in Barolo—adopted these tanks to speed fermentations and capture more color and fruit, René adopted them to mimic the long, gentle macerations of his ancestors. The process has much the same effect as the cappello sommerso employed by many of Piedmont’s staunchest traditionalists, with the tanks often making just a single rotation per day, and total macerations lasting often 3-4 weeks The Rostaings use up to 100% of the stems - believing they contribute to Côte Rôtie’s ineffable perfume as well as they texture and complexity that they provide. The w