2015 Côte-Rôtie La Landonne

In the view of René Rostaing, who is a longtime and highly vocal proponent of graceful Côte-Rôtie, 2015 is a vintage "more for its impact, for its power, than for elegance." While he readily admits that the wines are impressive for their force and weight, he doubts that they will ever attain a sense of finesse, which, he said, “is what makes Côte-Rôtie special and differentiates it from Hermitage and Cornas.” Rostaing noted that “the tannins are very ripe, so you don't have a hard edge to make the wines unattractive when they are young," and said that he's hopeful that as the youthful fruit of the '15s tones down, the wines will "show their origin more than their vintage." But for now, he said, "they are more reflective of 2015 than they are of their place."

The always opinionated René Rostaing said that while 2015 isn't his idea of a classic northern Rhône vintage, "you can't deny its quality, despite how rich and mostly atypical the wines are." He noted that he personally prefers vintages "with more energetic fruit and floral character, more minerality" than was possible in a hot vintage like 2015, or 2009, for that matter. Rostaing, who professes to seek "transparency" above all else with his wines, thinks that vintages that are overlooked for their relative lack of ripeness and weight "are often more indicative of their terroirs than the solar vintages, which are more about the grape and even the winemaker than the place."