Northern Rhone

I have been following the resurgence of Jean-Luc Jamet with great interest over the past 2 or 3 vintages. Afterall, the Côte-Rôties of the greater Jamet family have long been regarded as the benchmark wines of the region within the Northern Rhone. In 2013, brothers Jean-Luc and Jean-Paul announced that they would be splitting up the family’s domaine. For many years, Jean-Paul was the face of the domaine and Jean-Luc was the steady hand in the vineyards.

Thankfully, Jean-Luc has now stepped out of the proverbial shadows and returned to the fine wine arena with a resounding bang, using his prestigious holdings of some of the greatest sites of La Landonne, Chavaroche and Lancement to create his impressive new Côte-Rôtie called Les Terrasses. This is surely the type of Grand Vin that is going to propel Jean-Luc’s wines to become some of the most sought after Syrahs in the whole of the Northern Rhone and unfortunately with prices to match.

Made from 100% Syrah from 5 hectares notably 0.7 ha on Lancement (1980-1995), 0.6 ha Bonnivières, Chavaroche (0.5 ha early 1980s & 0.3 ha early 2010s), 0.7 ha on Mornachon (1985), also Côte Baudin, La Landonne, Moutonnes (0.11 ha 1945, 0.4 ha early 1980s), Les Rochains, Fongeant, 65% destemmed, with a 21 day vinification using wild yeasts, employing twice daily pump overs and 1 cap punching. Wines were aged in 20-30% new, 70-80% 1-6 year 60% 300-litre, 20% 228-litre, 20% 500-litre oak casks for 10 months, before being fined and bottled unfiltered to produce 26,650 bottles.

Jean-Luc Jamet Côte-Rôtie 2015 Les Terrasses, 12.5 Abv.

The 2015 vintage across the Rhone delivered some of the most intense and profound wines seen in many years. What separates this great vintage from the merely good ones is the way Jean-Luc has crafted a classically styled Côte-Rôtie Syrah that is both bold and powerful yet sleek and incredibly intense and seamlessly elegant at the same time. From the first drawing of the cork, aromatic waves of sumptuous dark berry fruits, exotic Asian spices, violets, crushed black pepper corns, dried herbs, garrigue and savoury new season game meat notes rise imperiously out of the glass. The palate at this youthful juncture remains taut and linear, utterly focused but texturally supremely polished and elegant with serious precision and depth in abundance. The concentration and clarity of fresh saline cassis, tart blue berries and broody black bramble berry fruits is something to behold reaffirming that this will be a vintage to cellar and enjoy over 20+ years. This is a wine that feels self-assured, confident and aware of its own talents within the serious pecking order of the Côte-Rôtie appellation.

(Wine Safari Score: 96+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Jean-Luc & Evelyne Jamet, 4624 Route du Recru Le Vallin 69420 Ampuis, France

Tel: +33(0)474 56 13 82

jamet.jeanluc@yahoo.fr

Cote Rote remains one of the hottest collectable and age worthy wines in the Northern Rhone along with select Hermitage and Cornas and no one crafts more precise fine wines in Cote Rotie than Rene Rostaing. Rene owns some of the most prestigious parcels of Cote Rotie namely in the Cote Blonde and in La Landonne. But it was his exceptionally good fortune to inherit 4 prime hectares from his father-in-law Albert Dervieux and then subsequently another 1.4 hectares of old vine Cote Rotie from is uncle Marius Gentaz bringing his total holdings up to 7.4 hectares that has made for a thoroughly captivating vignerons tale.

Of all the wines Rene Rostaing has produced in the past few decades, there are few more famous and sought after than his 1991 La Landonne Cote Rotie. This wine holds legendary status and is regarded with the highest esteem by Northern Rhone collectors. I recently got to drink a well cellared bottle at the Noble Rot Wine Bar with winemaker Romaric Chavy of Domaine Chavey-Choue in Burgundy and writer / restauranteur Dan Keeling. A rare treat indeed!

“In 1991 he produced four cuvees. Perhaps the best of these 1991s is the 1991 Cote Rotie La Landonne. As you might anticipate, there is considerable rivalry between Rene Rostaing and his neighbour, Guigal. Rostaing is quick to assert that his La Landonne vines are considerably older than those of Guigal” … wrote Robert Parker Jr. in December 1992.

Rene Rostaing Cote Rotie La Landonne 1991

Brilliantly bright ruby red, a superb bottle drunk at Noble Rot wine bar, liberated from a private client’s cellar after being bought on release. Tantalisingly complex and exotic, there are wonderful aromatic layers of black berry, black cherry, pepper corns, savoury cured meats and smokey graphite. So seamless, integrated, it’s hard to deconstruct the wine. Just a really profound melange of savoury, spicy, black fruited perfection. Beautifully dense, full bodied, suave and concentrated, the flavours and fruits are so vital and mineral laced yet also so amazingly youthful with tannins that are sweet, powdery but nicely resolved from bottle age. A really sensational, profound bottle of Northern Rhone. They don’t come much better than this. Drink now and over the next 10+ years.

(Wine Safari Score: 97/100 Greg Sherwood MW)