1998 Côte-Rôtie La Landonne

In the absence of director/enologist Jacques Grange, who was out of the country during my days in the Hermitage area, I was able to taste only a limited selection of wines from the '98 vintage, as well as a few samples of '99. Grange declined to prepare samples of his 1999 cuvees parcellaires as in a few cases the final blends for these cru bottlings had not been made and in others the wines had recently been racked. Grange has revitalized this old house since taking over in '97, but 1998 was the breakout vintage for Delas, as many of the company old oak foudres were replaced before the latter harvest. Grange gives most of his red wines a bit of pre-fermentation cold soak to obtain greater texture and flavor, and has increasingly carried out the malolactic fermentations in barriques which has helped to integrate the wines' wood component and achieve more opulence. Among the wines I sampled in November were several dense, powerfully structured reds that augur well for the continued improvement of this house.