2016 Cote Rotie Reserve

The 2016 Côte Rôtie Reserve is a screamingly good wine, and the finest vintage to date for this cuvée. Savvy readers need to snatch up this beauty. Coming mostly from the Côte Brune side of the appellation (71%) and the rest from the southern end, it boasts awesome dark berry fruits, pepper, game, olives, and bacon fat notes. It’s a more masculine, meaty wine, yet it hits the palate with terrific elegance and purity, medium to full-bodied richness, and no hard edges. It’s a beautiful, beautiful wine that will benefit from short-term cellaring and have two decades of longevity.

An assemblage of 12 parcels, including a healthy portion of Lancement, the 2016 Cote Rotie Reserve is already approachable. Savory notes of meat and leather greet the nose, while the full-bodied palate delivers plenty of berry fruit. It's creamy and lush, with a long, raspberry-tinged finish. It's a lovely wine to enjoy now and over the next 15+ years.

Bright purple. Highly expressive black raspberry and boysenberry scents, along with suggestions of smoky minerals and olive plus exotic spice and mineral overtones. Densely packed and lively on the palate, displaying velvety texture and impressive clarity to the candied black and blue fruit, violet pastille and spicecake flavors. Seamless and sharply focused on the extremely persistent finish, which features a smoky mineral flourish that adds vivacity and final cut.