2018 Cote Rotie Cote Brune

Powerful, mineral-accented aromas of ripe black/blue fruits, candied flowers, olive and exotic spices show outstanding clarity and a hint of smokiness. Sweet, chewy and focused on the palate, offering deeply concentrated blackberry, bitter cherry and floral pastille flavors that show serious energy for their brawn. A vibrant mineral nuance drives an extremely long, youthfully tannic finish that leaves behind a suave violet note.

A wine that’s going to push the upper limits of my scale, the 2018 Côte Rôtie Côte Brune is the most structured, brooding, yet massive example of this cuvée I can remember tasting. Inky colored with an inward array of black fruits, scorched earth, olives, smoked game, and spring flowers, it hits the palate with tons of fruit, full-bodied richness, and building tannins. It’s a magical wine in the making, but it’s going to take a decade of cellaring to show it. Domaine Jamet is located high up on the upper plateau above Côte Rôtie, around the village of le Vallin, and Jean-Paul and Corinne Jamet have been farming 25 different plots here, spread across 17 lieux-dits, since 1984. The majority of their holdings are located in the more schist-dominated Côte Brune side of Côte Rôtie (Chavaroche and Le Truchet being the largest) yet they also have prime real estate in Lancement and the Côte Blonde. The winemaking here is traditional yet not dogmatic, and the cellars are clean and impeccably kept. While Jean-Paul likes stems, there are plenty of parcels, and vintages, that see varying degrees of destemming and aging occurs mostly in demi-muids, with 15-30% being new. His Côte Rôties are bottled unfined and unfiltered after two years in barrel. Jamet’s wines represent a quintessential Côte Rôtie and possess incredible aromatics as well as a concentrated, structured style on the palate that rewards 5-7 years of bottle age. Top vintages of Jamet’s Côte Rôtie can evolve positively for 25 to 30 years. In addition to the classic cuvée, they also release a tiny production Côte Rôtie Côte Brune in top vintages. This cuvée comes all from the Côte Brune lieu-dit and sees a touch more new wood, but is largely made in the same, classic style. It always has a touch more concentration and structure yet can also show more elegant tannins.

Year after year, this is one of the top wines in the appellation. Jamet's 2018 Cote Rotie Cote Brune combines intense violet notes with mixed berries in a full-bodied wine that boasts incredible concentration yet never seems overly rich or heavy. Briny, fresh, silky and long, it's another tour de force from the talented Jamet family.