2017 Cote Rotie Belle Helene
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Tasting notes
The 2017 Côte Rôtie La Belle Hélène is a big, ripe, powerful wine offering ample red and black fruits supported by notions of chocolaty oak, smoked game, and assorted baking spices. Ripe, sunny, full-bodied, and sexy, it has some firmer tannins but brings extravagant fruit and texture.
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Average Score
Richard Hemming MW, jancisrobinson.com
James Suckling
More reviews and scores
Rich and plush, the 2017 Cote Rotie La Belle Helene is a full-bodied, hedonistic example of the appellation. Black cherries, espresso, cedar and dark chocolate notes dominate the nose and palate, framed by ripe, velvety tannins. This shows impressive power and concentration allied to generosity, texture and length, making it a true powerhouse. Give it several years in the cellar and drink it through 2040 or so.
Opaque violet. An intensely perfumed bouquet displays mineral-accented black/blue fruit and floral pastille scents that pick up olive, smoky bacon and exotic spice notes with air. In a concentrated yet energetic style, offering appealingly sweet, palate-coating cherry liqueur, blueberry, licorice, spicecake and candied violet flavors braced by a spine of juicy acidity. Shows superb clarity and mineral thrust on a strikingly long, floral-accented finish shaped by fine-grained, slow-building tannins. This was the only 2017 that had yet to be bottled when I visited Ogier in mid-March.