2015 Gilles Barge Côte-Rôtie Côte Blonde

The 2015 Côte Rôtie Côte Blonde is a richer, sexier wine based on 95% Syrah and 5% Viognier. This cuvée is fermented with 100% whole clusters and is aged 24-36 months in demi-muids. Black raspberries, spice, chocolate and peppered meat notions flow to a rich, textured, beautifully concentrated, voluptuous Côte Rôtie that has present tannin, solid balance and a great finish. It’s a beautiful wine that delivers the goods. This traditionally run, family estate pulls mostly from the Côte Brune side of Côte Rôtie. The wines are made by the young Julien Barge, with assistance from his father, Gilles Barge. These latest wines are the finest I’ve tasted from this estate.

Incorporating a touch more Viognier (5%), Barge’s 2015 Côte Rôtie Côte Blonde is fresher and livelier, with a juicy edge to its sappy flower, raspberry, black raspberry, green peppercorn and violet aromas and flavors. Perfumed, elegant and layered, with fine tannin and a supple finish, it will certainly be more approachable than the Côte Brune, but I suspect it will keep for two decades as well.

Cask sample. Tasted blind. Blackish crimson. Rather reduced. Very dry and brutal at present. Finishes very suddenly. It may come right but is pretty charmless at the moment. Rather drying finish as though the extraction was done with a rather heavy hand. There is certainly density…! (JR)