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Côte Rôtie Viallière, Domaine René Rostaing 2016

Tasting Notes

The 2016 Cote Rotie la Viaillere boasts delicate, almost dainty aromas of flowers, strengthened by stemmy notes and hints of olive and raspberry. It's medium to full-bodied, with a wiry, tannic strength that builds through the concentrated core of the wine and onto the long finish, yet it remains silky around the edges, suggesting reasonably early drinkability.

94
Joe Czerwinski, Wine Advocate, October 2018

The Rostaings' 2016 la Viallière bottling (which has not been produced since a couple of vintages in the mid-1990s) has been graced with the former label of René Rostaing's father-inlaw, Albert Dervieux, who was one of the great figures in Cote-Rotie during his long and illustrious career. As I mentioned back in my report on my visit to the winery in October of 2017, the domaine now owns more 1.2 hectares of vines in la Viallière, one-third of their vines originating from Albert Dervieux upon his retirement and now more than one hundred years of age. The other two-thirds were purchased by Monsieur Rostaing and replanted in the early 1980s, so are now around thirty-five years of age, but I do not know how much of the production from the younger vines was dedicated to the single vineyard bottling. The Rostaing family's 2016 la Viallière was outstanding out of cask and is equally impressive out of bottle, offering up a deep and youthful bouquet of black raspberries, dark berries, grilled venison, pepper, espresso, complex soil tones and a smoky topnote. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and ripely tannic, with fine soil signature, lovely focus and grip, plenty of depth at the core and a long, youthful and still gently stemmy finish. Again, this is a wine that needs at least fifteen years of bottle age and will not peak until it is at least a quarter century in age, but it is going to be brilliant in due course! 2031-2080.

95+
John Gilman, View From the Cellar, October 2019

1) (2 year 600-litre cask) **** dark red. There is a touch of oak thickness on the nose, a cosy, sure serving of red jam, coulis airs within. It’s not very open. This is firm, muscular; oak clmaps its thick juice. It ends on tight richness, sealed and close-knit, a note of kirsch, red cherry. From 2022-23. 2038-40 Nov 2017 2) (4 year 600-litre cask) ****(*) dark red. The nose gives lead pencil with dried herbs, mulberry, dark red berry fruit. It’s holding back. The palate has the velvet and iron of La Viallière, is well proportioned with bright tannins and real iron strength inside. It is firmly presented, tight wine. It can develop, flesh out, and will be handsome, rather than belle. From 2023. 2041-42 Nov 2017

John Livingstone-Learmonth, drinkrhone.com, November 2017
Please note that these tasting notes/scores are not intended to be exhaustive and in some cases they may not be the most recently published figures. However, we always do our best to add latest scores and reviews when these come to our attention. We advise customers who wish to purchase wines based simply on critical reviews to carry out further research into the latest reports.