Domaine Rostaing, Cote Rotie, Cote Blonde 2018

A wine that’s going to push the upper limits of my scale, the 2018 Côte Rôtie Côte Blonde has a wonderful sense of opulence and elegance paired with huge minerality and power. Giving up primordial notes of perfectly ripe currants, new saddle leather, spice, and wildflowers, it has a magical texture, huge richness and depth, loads of tannins, and a huge finish. It made my pulse jump.

The most tannic of the "big three" bottlings this year, the 2018 Cote Rotie la Cote Blonde features elegant hints of mixed herbs entwined around bold boysenberry fruit. It's medium to full-bodied, with plentiful fine-grained tannins that firm up on the long finish. Embryonic, but oh so promising, it should blossom in another five years or so.

Deep, glistening ruby. Intensely perfumed, sharply delineated red and blue fruits, incense, candied violet and Moroccan spices on the seductively perfumed nose. Stains the palate with juicy, mineral-driven cherry, black raspberry and blueberry flavors, which are complemented by suggestions of olive paste, candied flowers and allspice. Shows superb focus and energy on the strikingly long finish, which features harmonious tannins and reverberating floral and mineral notes. All whole clusters.

This is full-bodied, ripe and round, but also open, beautifully fragrant, elegant and expressive, displaying potpourri, lily, rose, raspberry and blackberry fruit. There's a solid tannic base, almost too tannic at this stage, but they are fine-grained and largely fruit-derived, just slightly dry. Rich in alcohol, but you don't really feel it, more the opulence and richness. Arguably not the finest or most elegant vintage, but nonetheless a wine full of pleasure.