2015 M. Chapoutier Côte-Rôtie Quatuor

Vivid purple. Sexy, mineral-accented aromas of fresh red and dark berries, candied flowers, olive and Indian spices show excellent clarity and lift. Sweet and expansive on the palate, offering concentrated black raspberry and cherry flavors and a hint of five-spice powder. A smoky mineral nuance arrives with air and carries through a long, discreetly tannic finish that show no rough edges.

The new estate cuvée that's farmed all biodynamically, the 2015 Côte Rôtie Quatuor offers similar black (and some blue fruits) as well as nuanced notes of violets, pepper and spring flowers. Medium to full-bodied, elegant and impeccably balanced, with ripe, sweet tannin, it's one heck of a Côte Rôtie that’s already accessible, yet will be better with short-term cellaring and keep for 10-15 years. Enough can’t be said about the quality coming from the estate of Michel Chapoutier. Taking over the domaine from his father in the late 1980s (his first vintage was 1989), Michel quickly moved the estate completely to bio-dynamic farming as well as building a new, state of the art winery located just outside of Tain l’Hermitage. These are classic, traditionally made wines that are never acidified (or chaptalized), are brought up mostly in demi-muids (with plenty of used oak), and bottled unfined and unfiltered. He also continues to grow the brand (this is easily one of the largest tastings I do every year from a single producer) and has added two new Côte Rôties in 2015, the Quatuor and Neve cuvees. The Quatuor is reserved for grapes that didn’t make it into the selection parcellaire releases, and the Neve comes from a single parcel in the northern part of the appellation. Both are impressive wines, although I don’t envy anyone trying to explain the full portfolio to buyers in the market. In addition, while it’s easy to focus on the top cuvées from this estate, the portfolio is packed with incredible values at just about every price point. These reviews focus on the 2015 and 2016 vintages, with all the 2015s tasted out of bottle and the majority of the 2016s still resting in barrel. The 2015 vintage is a monumental one for this estate and matches (and in a few cases, eclipses) what was accomplished in 2009 and 2010. These are ripe, concentrated, structured wines that are going to demand cellar time. In contrast, the 2016s are more elegant and silky, with terrific purity of fruit. They don’t have the sheer grandeur of fruit found in the 2015s, yet are seriously concentrated and have no shortage of tannins and structure.

The debut vintage for this cuvée is a huge success. The 2015 Cote Rotie Quatuor blends four estate parcels into a plush, long wine with no hard edges. Pastry crust and roasted beef leave an impression similar to beef Wellington in this full-bodied, savory wine that is already approachable yet capable of aging 15-20 years.