2018 Cote Rotie Terrasses

I loved the 2018 Côte Rôtie Terrasses, which is slightly more supple and elegant than both the 2017 and 2019. Offering darker red, almost blue fruits as well as peppery game, violets, and crushed stone-like minerality, it's medium to full-bodied, has the vintage's pure, balanced, harmonious style, supple tannins, and a great finish. It doesn't have the structure or mid-palate density of the 2019, but is a gorgeously complex, nuanced Côte Rôtie that needs another 3-5 years of bottle age and will evolve gracefully.

Saturated violet. Ripe dark berry, cherry pit and smoked meat aromas are complicated by suggestions of licorice and olive paste. Sappy and concentrated on the palate, offering lush bitter cherry, black raspberry and candied violet flavors, with a peppery nuance on the back half. Youthfully grippy tannins build slowly on the persistent finish, which features lingering game and spice flourishes.

More structured than it was from barrel, the 2018 Cote Rotie Terrasses comes across as tightly clenched, with a fistful of juicy raspberries locked away for the moment. Full-bodied and tannic, it needs some time to emerge from its current dormant phase.