| Region | |
|---|---|
| Subregion | France > Rhône > Northern Rhône > Côte Rotie |
| Colour | Red |
| Type | Still |
Moving to the Côte Rôties, the 2018 Côte Rôtie Ampodium is a head turner and is going to rival the 2010 as the greatest vintage of this cuvée to date. A deep ruby/purple hue is followed by sumptuous notes of ripe dark fruits, ground herbs, scorched earth, and violets. Full-bodied, deep, and powerful on the palate, it has the wonderful sense of opulence and purity that’s the hallmark of the vintage.
The 2018 Côte-Rôtie “Ampodium” bottling from Domaine Rostaing is pretty ripe in this vintage, coming in listed at 14.5 percent octane. However, the wine shows off beautiful purity on both the nose and palate and absolutely no signs of sur maturité, as the nose jumps from the glass in a lovely blend of cassis, black raspberries, grilled meats, pepper, a touch of hazelnut, a lovely foundation of soil tones, woodsmoke and a touch of new oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and powerful in profile, with a rock solid core of fruit, excellent mineral drive and grip, ripe, chewy tannins and a very long, complex and very well-balanced balanced finish. This carries its ripeness extremely well, with a blade of minerality defining the palate. For the Ampodium bottling, the 2018 is most emphatically a “big boy” and will need plenty of cellaring time to soften up and blossom, but in due course, this will be superb.
