2015 Côte-Rôtie Carmina

Burgundy-trained (at Clos de Tart, no less) Pierre-Jean Villa’s wines continue to evolve to a style that’s reflective of his roots, although the hot 2015 vintage presented a challenge if one wanted to make truly graceful wines, he told me. “Yes, they are surprisingly elegant for a hot year but their signature will always be concentration and powerful fruit. You had to be careful not to get too much extraction; they’re for people who love deep wines.” His ‘15s definitely show intensity but they also display a light touch and an appealing interplay of structure and fruit, with harmonious tannins that will allow for relatively early drinking. He used more stems than usual in 2015 because they were uniformly ripe, and this element no doubt contributes to the expressive aromatics that I found when tasting through these wines with Villa in February. This vintage’s two Côte-Rôties are on track to be the best wines that Villa has yet made.