Côte Rôtie La Landonne, Etienne Guigal 2011

A step up over the other two single vineyard releases, the 2011 Cote Rotie la Landonne is an incredible wine that knocks it out of the park in the vintage. Its inky purple/ruby color is followed by to-die-for notes of cassis, black olives, truffles, graphite and crushed rock. Full-bodied, massively concentrated, thick and unctuous, it has the vintage’s flamboyant fruit profile, yet backs it up with a stacked mid-palate, serious amounts of tannin and a finish that just won’t quite. It’s relatively approachable now due to its glycerin and fat, yet needs a decade of cellaring and will knock your socks off over the following two decades or more.
Drink: 2015 - 2035

Possibly the wine of the vintage, and another candidate for perfection, the 2011 Côte Rôtie La Landonne has a level of complexity and intensity that's normally reserved for the La Mouline. Exhibiting thrilling notes of dried flower, olive, earth, rendered bacon fat and currant and blackberry-styled fruit, it has a massive core of tannin, yet more than enough fruit, texture and concentration to handle it. I suspect it will be relatively approachable by this cuvee's standards, but should still dish out tons of pleasure for 2-3 decades.