M. Chapoutier, Cote Rotie, La Mordoree 2017

The flagship La Mordorée cuvée is always destemmed and vinified in concrete tanks before spending 18 months in 30% new French oak. Flamboyant, sexy, and pure, the 2017 Côte Rôtie La Mordorée knocks it out of the park with its crazy good bouquet of black raspberries, flowers, olives, bacon fat, and gamey, meaty nuances. Insanely complex, elegant and seamless, with a pure silk-like texture, this beauty has no hard edges, ultra-fine tannins, and a great, great finish. It has perfection written all over it and is quite possibly the wine of the vintage!

A blend of Côte Blonde and Côte Brune (the actual lieux-dits), the 2017 Cote Rotie la Mordorée is a top-notch example of this cuvée. The Chapoutier team now picks and vinifies the parcels separately, which has allowed them to fine-tune the picking dates. It boasts an exciting mélange of berry fruit flavors, is silky and medium to full-bodied in the mouth and finishes long.

Deep, dark ruby. A deeply perfumed bouquet evokes blackberry, blueberry, vanilla, licorice and pungent flowers, and a smoky mineral nuance builds with aeration. Velvety and seamless on the palate, offering intense black and blue fruit liqueur, salty olive, candied violet and exotic spice flavors sharpened by juicy acidity and a cracked pepper flourish. Hangs on with impressive tenacity on the floral- and mineral-accented finish, which leaves star anise and cola notes behind. 60% of this fruit comes from the Côte Brune and 40% is drawn from the Côte Blonde.