2005 Cote Rotie Seigneur de Maugiron

Deep red. Fresh red berry and cherry aromas are complicated by smoky licorice and violet. Taut on entry but quickly fleshes out to offer ripe dark berry flavors, silky tannins and bright mineral lift. Brisk, sweet and refreshing on the finish, leaving behind a suave red fruit and spice quality.

Dark red. Strikingly elegant, racy redcurrant and strawberry scents, lifted by bright floral notes and brisk minerality. Focused red fruit flavors and a bright graphite undercurrent lead to a fresh, clean, long finish. This could pass for a top-notch Burgundy.

The gorgeous, dense ruby/purple-hued 2005 Cote Rotie Seigneur de Maugiron offers abundant aromas of bacon fat, tapenade, black cherries, and black currants. Medium to full-bodied with good acidity, high tannin, and beautifully layered sweet fruit, it should be at its finest between 2012-2025. ||As I have written many times in the past, this famous estate, which muddled along in the seventies, eighties, and early nineties, was reborn when its owners, the Deutz-Roederer Champagne enterprise, brought in the super-talented Jacques Granges, and gave him carte blanche to redo the cellars and elevate the level of quality. Since his first vintage, 1997, Delas has become one of the superb purveyors of high quality Rhone wine. I have enormous admiration for what Granges has accomplished. His most recent vintages, 2005 and 2006, have been brilliant and he continues to do a superb job with the white wines Readers should also know that Delas recently purchased 37 acres of vines in Crozes-Hermitage, so they will be augmenting their production from that appellation. The bottled 2005 reds include some interesting efforts from some of the better villages in the south. The Chateauneuf du Papes and Cotes du Rhones were reviewed in issue #173 (October, 2007) Wine Advocate.February, 2008