Off the list at Herons for a very fair $125. Paired with the equally well priced '07 ($130). The stylistic differences between these sister vintages was striking, with the '06 showing as more "Burgundian," rather red fruited and elegant, with a core of strawberry and raspberry fruit, but with the telltale acidity and tannins of the vintage. This required decanting to open up, while the '07 was good out of the gates and much more of what I think of as classic Levet: rustic, gamey and black fruited. Between these two very different wines, at least one worked well with every dish in the four course menu.
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Opened because of Zak's note from last year, and of course he nailed it. Beautiful, classic, old school Côte-Rôtie with all the meaty and sauvage elements I expect from Levet.
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Stunning nose of forest floor and forest fruits - really powerful and uncompromising. Without decanting the balance is wonderful, with smokey dark red fruits, tannins and cleansing acidity. The finish is really long - a minute or more. Will be interesting to see how it is tomorrow….
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Decanted for about 45 min… this smells great, rocks, soil, dark fruits, all woven up with a little feral energy… sauvage, a touch stemmy, sour cherries, iodine, a wonderfully rustic and wild nose... This is a singular wine. It smells like it’s got ripe, even stewed fruit, but when I taste it, it’s quite dry and savory infused with umami and sandstone… It’s bright and energetic, both floral and tarry. With air, some quintessential Cote Rotie notes of ham and lavender join thr fun… in many ways this reminds me of certain Loire wines which seem to transcend the genre morphing into (what my wine buddy Ted brilliantly dubbed) a “curative broth”… But I dig it and assume it would be even better in a riper year. Seems ready to drink, but should easily hold for 10 or more years. 93+ pts.
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Decanted for two hours. Classically styled cote rotie with nicely restrained floral nose with earthy notes. Blackberry, red cherry, bacon fat and a little funk. Medium bodied, fully mature but still energetic.
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Decanted one hour. Another excellent bottle of this. Subtle but pretty nose. Raspberry, plum, herbs, olives and spices. The wine is medium to full bodied, lovely balance between fruit and savoury flavors, fully mature now. If you like classic cote rotie in a more restrained style this is a great go to wine.
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Just awesome. A little dull upon pop-n-pour, this soon opened up with a huge smokey and gamey nose with piercing dark raspberry fruit and classic Syrah floral notes powering through. Dark and firm, this is just starting its rise into maturity. Savory, wild, perfect. So well integrated and composed, just a pleasure to drink. This was still going strong on Day 2 as well.
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Double blind from small bottles from Zak. Day 2 been poured for hours. Classic N Rhone Syrah is my guess, Cornas or Cote Rotie from old-school producer. Nose of brine-olive and a little smoked meat. Some dark and sour cherry and minerals. Some ruby red fruit hiding in there. Pour from bottle 2 - lots of dark and juicy fruits, almost some citric, violets. Blueberry. Explosive. Again classic on the palate - very olive/briney, good minerals, not too much fruit. Lots of umami. Second pour - tons of blueberry violet and minerals - really gripping and alive dusty tannins. Lots of minerals and savory notes. This is so alive and grippy and focused. Finish is lots of dark fruits and savory and minerals. Just classic. Nose - 5.5/6, Palate - 5.5/6, Finish - 5/6, Je ne Sais Quoi - 1.5/2 = 17.5/20.
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Slightly darker in color compared to the 2007 Améthyste, this is deep purple. Opens up with a beautifully floral notes, scents of violets, combined with notes of blue fruit. Here the tannins are unresolved too, but they are smoother and more silky and the components are in balance. Smoked meat, violets, bacon, animal notes, soil - this is STGT, and still not close to peak. Great wine in the making.
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30 minute decant. This has a terrific subtle nose of raspberry, rose and earth. The palate is medium bodied and well balanced. Flavors of raspberry and plum intermix with roast meat and a little tobacco and spice. This has a delicious mid palate but lacks a little length in the finish. Its fully mature now and ready to go. Interestingly I enjoyed this bottle much better than the last one I had which I believe I decanted longer.
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Gamey and savory notes on the nose along with dark berries, blueberries, and a hint of licorice. Quite tannic with good acidity, olives, brine, more dark berries, and tart dark cherries on the palate. Nice finish. Still quite primary and tannic, could use another 5 years or so.
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Slow oxed for two hours. This is fully mature now. Aromas of plums, black pepper and smoke meats lead things off. The wine is medium bodied with tannins now well integrated and partially resolved. Black currant, plum, leather and lots of spice come through on the palate. Overall this is a tasty well balanced wine which is true to place but it doesn’t have the complexity or wow factor to merit a high score.
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Dark cherry to dense ruby. Dense, dark fruited nose with a touch of violet, but mainly dense and heading towards themonolithic. Good acidity on t(e attack, dense dark fruit, and some moderately fine and slightly grainy tannin on the finish. Relatively one dimensional, but works well with venison. ***(*)
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In a great spot, and more ready than expected (didn't change much in the decanter, was ready from the off). Gamey and mature, black pepper, really cool, fresh and silky. Easy-drinking in the best sense. Wonderful with lamb and Middle Eastern spices.
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Blind N. Rhones: Slow-oxed for ~4 hours. Fairly tight right now. Sure it has some nice savory and funk-filled black fruit, but the wine is just a bit flat and showing older than 2006. Perhaps closed down.
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My birthday celebration, 2019 edition: Meat and smoke along with bright red fruit. A really compelling old school syrah. Well balanced and open for business after a couple hours in the decanter.
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After a couple of more modern bottles of Syrah in the past two weeks, this absolutely hits the spot for me. Now we go old-school. This is unapologetically Levet - briny, meaty, smoky, and still showing some of that stemmy funkiness with gentle red fruited flavours beneath. The fruit's understated but still has a youthful sappiness and intensity, and there's some firm, grainy tannin on the back end that suggests this needs more time - but I love the overall balance here and can't wait for this to reach full maturity.
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Despite 2 months standing, still some fine sediment in the last half ounce. Medium ruby color with some bricking; initially nose was closed but 30 minutes in the decanter it starts to show elegant florals, then transitions to some iron minerality, dark cherry; palate is medium bodied, quite high acid and shrill when first opened (unbalanced), but moderated quickly over the first 30-60 minutes, now more integrated medium to medium-plus acid, medium alcohol (12.5% listed), medium youthful tannins, more red fruit; finish is medium length. Certainly an interesting bottle, and it is evolving in the glass significantly, not nearly as masculine and gamey as I was expecting. The length and complexity are still developing, and I doubt it will ever hit the heights of a Chave hermitage or Jamet Cote Rotie, but it's not priced as such. This seems like it would have a decade or more ahead of it. 90+, and will reassess with substantial air. With air, definitely improved. Better aromatics and more integrated palate. Still not the most complex though. 90-91
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Lovely bottle. Dark fruits and herb on the nose. Great balance, meat, fruit, leather, herbs, forest in a fascinating palate. Unusual in a great way. Excellent, and has some time left.
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Really nice bottle. Smoke, pepper and dark fruit on the nose. Cherry, plum, savory palate with some tannin remaining but great balance. Long clean and tasty on the finish. Unusual and unusually good.
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DoubleD Fest (Carlsbad, California): Clear dark garnet color. Beautiful bouquet of red plums, cherries and their liqueurs, bacon fat, grilled herbs, stony soil. Similar on the palate, medium-full body, beautiful structure and balance, seamless, rich and polished. Bomba503 said it best: "This wine has a finish like a ballet dancer giving me a lap dance on my tongue." A few years ago this was my wine of the night. Tonight it was merely superb. This does not mean that the wine is in decline by any means; the opposite is more likely.
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4th Annual Wilson School Auction Tasting: Decanted 4 hrs -opaque dark red, minimal bricking -olive juice, animale -med acidity, med/med- weight and concentration, savory meaty olive with a slight herbal/green streak, med tannins -lacks a little depth but nonetheless a very nice savory Cote-Rotie in early maturity
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PopnPour, tasted over 3 hrs -opaque muddled dark red purple -olive juice/tapenade and smoked cured meat on a faintly peppery dark berry spine -med/med+ acidity imparts a slightly sour note, med weight, takes 1-2 hours to open up and flesh out revealing an earthy dark berry base with white pepper and green/pine/spice element, med/med+ chalky tannins -savory deliciousness drinking well now with some air, probably better in a few years, not as meaty and open as the '07 tasted last year
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This is starting to come around. Just what I want from Northern Rhone Syrah - an array of saline, meaty, and other savoury leathery and earthy flavours around a core of ripe red fruit and black olives. Powerful and still showing a bit of tannin on the back end, but drinking very nicely with some time in the decanter.
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Tasted single blind in a mixed new/old world flight. A young and amazingly complex wine in an animale style. Full nose is loaded with sauvage notes (earth, leather, armpit), black olives, cracked pepper and lean black fruits. Palate is rustically styled with leathery, earthy black fruits. Still quite young and a bit disjointed as the fruit and structure are out of sync. Needs time. 2-3 points of upside.
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The Rotating Dinners, I.5: Blinds from Around the World (Chicago, IL): Served double blind in a flight of syrah. Easily guessed as Northern Rhone, but I instead went to Cornas. This was a very feral and wild bottle of syrah, with lots of meat and olives, and tons of rusticity. Perhaps the tannic structure here wasn't as firm, but it was that wild quality about this wine that stood out for me. The palate is quite silky, though there is still some of that feral animale quality. Showing very well now -- I've said before that I find Levet a bit too wild, but perhaps a bit of age does tamp that down a little bit. That, and blind tasting.
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Certainly enjoyable now, though time will surely help develop more of those nice Cote Rotie tertiary notes. Dark fruit, spice, torrefaction; at times a bit of lavender and bacon. I prefer a slightly finer silhouette.
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Decanted. Clear dark garnet-blood red. Superb bouquet of fresh black fruit, camphor, mint, extinguished campfire, light bacon fat. Slighter bitter tannins at first, becoming more mellow and balanced after an hour. Seems young with a promising future. My #1, group's THIRD PLACE.
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Young and hard edged. Dark red, nice but reticent nose. Palate has great fruit, pepper, some earth tones. Good acidity but very structured with hard tannins. This has plenty of fruit and acid to age, with time this should become pleasant as the tannins soften.
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Very backward and unyielding aromatically at first, but this really opened up nicely with a lot of air. Popped and poured, it showed some bright olive and pepper-tinged dark fruit initially, but after a few hours of air this transformed into a much more savoury, meaty and sauvage wine - really classic Côte-Rôtie, though I'll give my other bottles more time in the cellar.
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The nose is a little shut down on this wine. There is a subtle blend of red and dark fruit, macerated tomato and cured beef. The palate is much more open than the 2005, more red fruit on the palate, grilled meat, decent acidity and balance, it's drinkable now but will get better over the next 5-10 years.
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Taste: Medium bodied with medium/high acidity and chewy tannins. The structure is imposing and certainly youthful. Beneath the structure there is black cherries, licorice, white pepper, and bacon fat.
Overall: It's hard to get much of a read on this as it is very coarse right now. The raw materials are very good, but this doesn't want to show right now.
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Yet another winner from Levet. This starts out somewhat reticent and sullen, but with a little air it quickly shifts into fifth gear and develops a stunning classic Côte-Rôtie aroma. Layers of floral, peppery, smoky and meaty notes frame a core of fresh red fruits and black olives, and it conveys both a sense of wildness and finesse. A thrilling wine to sit down and follow over a few hours with dinner.
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This doesn't have quite the stuffing of some of the others but there's still definitely a density to the core, length and that silkiness. Maturing well and balanced. Great drinking.
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While it doesn't offer the same depth as the 07 this is still a wonderful expression of traditional cote rotie, nose has cured meat, dark mineral laced fruit and smoke, similar palate with medium finish
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Classic N Rhone Syrah in a style that's light enough to enjoy elements rarely seen in today's riper vintage. Notes of olive and meat rest on a fresh and crisp palate. Certainly no shame in drinking this now.
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Tasting at Cellar 13 (Cellar 13): The darker, brooding, rustic side of Cote Rotie, though not my preferred style you can't help but appreciate the wine, still pent up in potential this has lots of pepper, brambly dark fruit, smoke, some black olive and a large wrap of tannin from what seems to be whole cluster fruit, old school, must be Cote Brune, I was on Cornas.
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Cassoulet Night (Jimmy's Apartment - Chicago, IL): Pop and pour. Not many Cote-Rotie's still have this type of rustic and lithe profile and these are just a pleasure to drink. The nose has aromas of sausage, violets, olive, and tobacco. Incredibly silky palate that's airy, yet powerful. Great balance of dark fruits, rustic, earthy tones and dried meats. A great package.
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Another fantastic bottle. Everything I want in Côte-Rôtie; meaty, floral and peppery notes around black olives and pure red fruits, and really elegant with a sense of purity and a delicate touch to the flavours.
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Much richer than the '98 with the fruit a lot more prominent here, and savory meaty/saline/ashy flavors in the background. This is really primary, but given the material, structure and balance here I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes.
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Quite a contrast with the '09; the fruit's nowhere near as dense and ripe here, and the meaty, saline and floral flavours are much more prominent here. Again there's a sense of finesse and elegance to the texture that makes it very appealing to drink with fine grained tannins, and impressive length. Levet always seems to deliver.
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Textbook Côte-Rôtie; a little tannic and tightly wound initially but opens with air into a wonderfully fragrant, elegant wine conveying layers of vivid meaty, savoury earthy, violet and fresh red fruited flavours with a gentle, polished texture. Levet always seems to deliver.
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3/25/2023 - GrapeScott wrote: 91 Points
Off the list at Herons for a very fair $125. Paired with the equally well priced '07 ($130). The stylistic differences between these sister vintages was striking, with the '06 showing as more "Burgundian," rather red fruited and elegant, with a core of strawberry and raspberry fruit, but with the telltale acidity and tannins of the vintage. This required decanting to open up, while the '07 was good out of the gates and much more of what I think of as classic Levet: rustic, gamey and black fruited. Between these two very different wines, at least one worked well with every dish in the four course menu.
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6/12/2022 - salil wrote:
Opened because of Zak's note from last year, and of course he nailed it. Beautiful, classic, old school Côte-Rôtie with all the meaty and sauvage elements I expect from Levet.
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2/12/2022 - Lordswood wrote: 93 Points
Stunning nose of forest floor and forest fruits - really powerful and uncompromising. Without decanting the balance is wonderful, with smokey dark red fruits, tannins and cleansing acidity. The finish is really long - a minute or more. Will be interesting to see how it is tomorrow….
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11/29/2021 - blanquito wrote: 93 Points
Decanted for about 45 min… this smells great, rocks, soil, dark fruits, all woven up with a little feral energy… sauvage, a touch stemmy, sour cherries, iodine, a wonderfully rustic and wild nose... This is a singular wine. It smells like it’s got ripe, even stewed fruit, but when I taste it, it’s quite dry and savory infused with umami and sandstone… It’s bright and energetic, both floral and tarry. With air, some quintessential Cote Rotie notes of ham and lavender join thr fun… in many ways this reminds me of certain Loire wines which seem to transcend the genre morphing into (what my wine buddy Ted brilliantly dubbed) a “curative broth”… But I dig it and assume it would be even better in a riper year. Seems ready to drink, but should easily hold for 10 or more years. 93+ pts.
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11/5/2021 - mclanew Likes this wine: 93 Points
Decanted for two hours. Classically styled cote rotie with nicely restrained floral nose with earthy notes. Blackberry, red cherry, bacon fat and a little funk. Medium bodied, fully mature but still energetic.
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5/10/2021 - mclanew Likes this wine: 93 Points
Decanted one hour. Another excellent bottle of this. Subtle but pretty nose. Raspberry, plum, herbs, olives and spices. The wine is medium to full bodied, lovely balance between fruit and savoury flavors, fully mature now. If you like classic cote rotie in a more restrained style this is a great go to wine.
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3/2/2021 - Chomsky wrote:
Just awesome. A little dull upon pop-n-pour, this soon opened up with a huge smokey and gamey nose with piercing dark raspberry fruit and classic Syrah floral notes powering through. Dark and firm, this is just starting its rise into maturity. Savory, wild, perfect. So well integrated and composed, just a pleasure to drink. This was still going strong on Day 2 as well.
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3/1/2021 - Seth Rosenberg Likes this wine: 95 Points
Double blind from small bottles from Zak. Day 2 been poured for hours. Classic N Rhone Syrah is my guess, Cornas or Cote Rotie from old-school producer. Nose of brine-olive and a little smoked meat. Some dark and sour cherry and minerals. Some ruby red fruit hiding in there. Pour from bottle 2 - lots of dark and juicy fruits, almost some citric, violets. Blueberry. Explosive. Again classic on the palate - very olive/briney, good minerals, not too much fruit. Lots of umami. Second pour - tons of blueberry violet and minerals - really gripping and alive dusty tannins. Lots of minerals and savory notes. This is so alive and grippy and focused. Finish is lots of dark fruits and savory and minerals. Just classic. Nose - 5.5/6, Palate - 5.5/6, Finish - 5/6, Je ne Sais Quoi - 1.5/2 = 17.5/20.
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1/3/2021 - pbaek wrote:
Slightly darker in color compared to the 2007 Améthyste, this is deep purple. Opens up with a beautifully floral notes, scents of violets, combined with notes of blue fruit. Here the tannins are unresolved too, but they are smoother and more silky and the components are in balance. Smoked meat, violets, bacon, animal notes, soil - this is STGT, and still not close to peak. Great wine in the making.
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12/30/2020 - mclanew Likes this wine: 93 Points
30 minute decant. This has a terrific subtle nose of raspberry, rose and earth. The palate is medium bodied and well balanced. Flavors of raspberry and plum intermix with roast meat and a little tobacco and spice. This has a delicious mid palate but lacks a little length in the finish. Its fully mature now and ready to go. Interestingly I enjoyed this bottle much better than the last one I had which I believe I decanted longer.
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12/13/2020 - glou.sf Likes this wine: 93 Points
Gamey and savory notes on the nose along with dark berries, blueberries, and a hint of licorice. Quite tannic with good acidity, olives, brine, more dark berries, and tart dark cherries on the palate. Nice finish. Still quite primary and tannic, could use another 5 years or so.
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10/10/2020 - mclanew Likes this wine: 92 Points
Slow oxed for two hours. This is fully mature now. Aromas of plums, black pepper and smoke meats lead things off. The wine is medium bodied with tannins now well integrated and partially resolved. Black currant, plum, leather and lots of spice come through on the palate. Overall this is a tasty well balanced wine which is true to place but it doesn’t have the complexity or wow factor to merit a high score.
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2/1/2020 - SimonG wrote: 91 Points
Dark cherry to dense ruby. Dense, dark fruited nose with a touch of violet, but mainly dense and heading towards themonolithic. Good acidity on t(e attack, dense dark fruit, and some moderately fine and slightly grainy tannin on the finish. Relatively one dimensional, but works well with venison. ***(*)
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1/25/2020 - NickA Likes this wine: 94 Points
In a great spot, and more ready than expected (didn't change much in the decanter, was ready from the off). Gamey and mature, black pepper, really cool, fresh and silky. Easy-drinking in the best sense. Wonderful with lamb and Middle Eastern spices.
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10/5/2019 - Nanda wrote:
Blind N. Rhones: Slow-oxed for ~4 hours. Fairly tight right now. Sure it has some nice savory and funk-filled black fruit, but the wine is just a bit flat and showing older than 2006. Perhaps closed down.
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4/13/2019 - prof b wrote: 93 Points
My birthday celebration, 2019 edition: Meat and smoke along with bright red fruit. A really compelling old school syrah. Well balanced and open for business after a couple hours in the decanter.
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4/13/2019 - salil wrote: 93 Points
After a couple of more modern bottles of Syrah in the past two weeks, this absolutely hits the spot for me. Now we go old-school. This is unapologetically Levet - briny, meaty, smoky, and still showing some of that stemmy funkiness with gentle red fruited flavours beneath. The fruit's understated but still has a youthful sappiness and intensity, and there's some firm, grainy tannin on the back end that suggests this needs more time - but I love the overall balance here and can't wait for this to reach full maturity.
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4/9/2019 - aagrawal wrote: 90 Points
Despite 2 months standing, still some fine sediment in the last half ounce. Medium ruby color with some bricking; initially nose was closed but 30 minutes in the decanter it starts to show elegant florals, then transitions to some iron minerality, dark cherry; palate is medium bodied, quite high acid and shrill when first opened (unbalanced), but moderated quickly over the first 30-60 minutes, now more integrated medium to medium-plus acid, medium alcohol (12.5% listed), medium youthful tannins, more red fruit; finish is medium length. Certainly an interesting bottle, and it is evolving in the glass significantly, not nearly as masculine and gamey as I was expecting. The length and complexity are still developing, and I doubt it will ever hit the heights of a Chave hermitage or Jamet Cote Rotie, but it's not priced as such. This seems like it would have a decade or more ahead of it. 90+, and will reassess with substantial air.
With air, definitely improved. Better aromatics and more integrated palate. Still not the most complex though. 90-91
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1/12/2019 - Rechrom wrote: 94 Points
Lovely bottle. Dark fruits and herb on the nose. Great balance, meat, fruit, leather, herbs, forest in a fascinating palate. Unusual in a great way. Excellent, and has some time left.
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11/9/2018 - thwacker Likes this wine: 93 Points
dark purple, really, really smoky on the nose with plums and bacon, smooth tannins, good acidity, this is at the peak. i wish i had more!
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3/11/2018 - Rechrom wrote: 95 Points
Really nice bottle. Smoke, pepper and dark fruit on the nose. Cherry, plum, savory palate with some tannin remaining but great balance. Long clean and tasty on the finish. Unusual and unusually good.
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10/7/2017 - Javachip Likes this wine: 95 Points
DoubleD Fest (Carlsbad, California): Clear dark garnet color. Beautiful bouquet of red plums, cherries and their liqueurs, bacon fat, grilled herbs, stony soil. Similar on the palate, medium-full body, beautiful structure and balance, seamless, rich and polished. Bomba503 said it best: "This wine has a finish like a ballet dancer giving me a lap dance on my tongue." A few years ago this was my wine of the night. Tonight it was merely superb. This does not mean that the wine is in decline by any means; the opposite is more likely.
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4/29/2017 - Cote d'Or wrote:
4th Annual Wilson School Auction Tasting: Decanted 4 hrs
-opaque dark red, minimal bricking
-olive juice, animale
-med acidity, med/med- weight and concentration, savory meaty olive with a slight herbal/green streak, med tannins
-lacks a little depth but nonetheless a very nice savory Cote-Rotie in early maturity
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1/14/2017 - Cote d'Or wrote:
PopnPour, tasted over 3 hrs
-opaque muddled dark red purple
-olive juice/tapenade and smoked cured meat on a faintly peppery dark berry spine
-med/med+ acidity imparts a slightly sour note, med weight, takes 1-2 hours to open up and flesh out revealing an earthy dark berry base with white pepper and green/pine/spice element, med/med+ chalky tannins
-savory deliciousness drinking well now with some air, probably better in a few years, not as meaty and open as the '07 tasted last year
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12/26/2016 - salil wrote: 93 Points
This is starting to come around. Just what I want from Northern Rhone Syrah - an array of saline, meaty, and other savoury leathery and earthy flavours around a core of ripe red fruit and black olives. Powerful and still showing a bit of tannin on the back end, but drinking very nicely with some time in the decanter.
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8/18/2016 - Nanda wrote: 92 Points
Tasted single blind in a mixed new/old world flight. A young and amazingly complex wine in an animale style. Full nose is loaded with sauvage notes (earth, leather, armpit), black olives, cracked pepper and lean black fruits. Palate is rustically styled with leathery, earthy black fruits. Still quite young and a bit disjointed as the fruit and structure are out of sync. Needs time. 2-3 points of upside.
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8/18/2016 - acyso wrote: 93 Points
The Rotating Dinners, I.5: Blinds from Around the World (Chicago, IL): Served double blind in a flight of syrah. Easily guessed as Northern Rhone, but I instead went to Cornas. This was a very feral and wild bottle of syrah, with lots of meat and olives, and tons of rusticity. Perhaps the tannic structure here wasn't as firm, but it was that wild quality about this wine that stood out for me. The palate is quite silky, though there is still some of that feral animale quality. Showing very well now -- I've said before that I find Levet a bit too wild, but perhaps a bit of age does tamp that down a little bit. That, and blind tasting.
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5/30/2016 - englishman's claret wrote: 92 Points
Certainly enjoyable now, though time will surely help develop more of those nice Cote Rotie tertiary notes. Dark fruit, spice, torrefaction; at times a bit of lavender and bacon. I prefer a slightly finer silhouette.
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6/19/2015 - Javachip wrote: 94 Points
Decanted. Clear dark garnet-blood red. Superb bouquet of fresh black fruit, camphor, mint, extinguished campfire, light bacon fat. Slighter bitter tannins at first, becoming more mellow and balanced after an hour. Seems young with a promising future. My #1, group's THIRD PLACE.
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11/23/2014 - Rechrom wrote:
Young and hard edged. Dark red, nice but reticent nose. Palate has great fruit, pepper, some earth tones. Good acidity but very structured with hard tannins. This has plenty of fruit and acid to age, with time this should become pleasant as the tannins soften.
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10/18/2014 - salil wrote: 93 Points
Very backward and unyielding aromatically at first, but this really opened up nicely with a lot of air. Popped and poured, it showed some bright olive and pepper-tinged dark fruit initially, but after a few hours of air this transformed into a much more savoury, meaty and sauvage wine - really classic Côte-Rôtie, though I'll give my other bottles more time in the cellar.
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10/1/2014 - Bill Bucklew wrote: 90 Points
The nose is a little shut down on this wine. There is a subtle blend of red and dark fruit, macerated tomato and cured beef. The palate is much more open than the 2005, more red fruit on the palate, grilled meat, decent acidity and balance, it's drinkable now but will get better over the next 5-10 years.
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9/30/2014 - KeithAkers wrote: 90 Points
Rotating Dinner Series- Bernard Levet Cote-Roties (Rustic House, Chicago IL): Nose: The nose is a bit unforgiving at the moment. It's not completely shut down with black cherries, licorice, bacon fat, black olives, and some crushed rocks.
Taste: Medium bodied with medium/high acidity and chewy tannins. The structure is imposing and certainly youthful. Beneath the structure there is black cherries, licorice, white pepper, and bacon fat.
Overall: It's hard to get much of a read on this as it is very coarse right now. The raw materials are very good, but this doesn't want to show right now.
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9/25/2014 - AtoZ wrote: 89 Points
Weak year for Levet? Lots of earth but none of the violet / flowery notes I like in sime of these wines.
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3/18/2014 - salil wrote: 94 Points
Yet another winner from Levet. This starts out somewhat reticent and sullen, but with a little air it quickly shifts into fifth gear and develops a stunning classic Côte-Rôtie aroma. Layers of floral, peppery, smoky and meaty notes frame a core of fresh red fruits and black olives, and it conveys both a sense of wildness and finesse. A thrilling wine to sit down and follow over a few hours with dinner.
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2/17/2014 - yofog wrote: 93 Points
This doesn't have quite the stuffing of some of the others but there's still definitely a density to the core, length and that silkiness. Maturing well and balanced. Great drinking.
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9/28/2013 - eoinhharkins Likes this wine: 92 Points
While it doesn't offer the same depth as the 07 this is still a wonderful expression of traditional cote rotie, nose has cured meat, dark mineral laced fruit and smoke, similar palate with medium finish
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9/16/2013 - rm wines wrote:
Classic N Rhone Syrah in a style that's light enough to enjoy elements rarely seen in today's riper vintage. Notes of olive and meat rest on a fresh and crisp palate. Certainly no shame in drinking this now.
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8/20/2013 - Rezy13 Likes this wine: 92 Points
Tasting at Cellar 13 (Cellar 13): The darker, brooding, rustic side of Cote Rotie, though not my preferred style you can't help but appreciate the wine, still pent up in potential this has lots of pepper, brambly dark fruit, smoke, some black olive and a large wrap of tannin from what seems to be whole cluster fruit, old school, must be Cote Brune, I was on Cornas.
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4/6/2013 - tooch wrote:
(Mostly) Northern Rhone Night (The Bristol - Chicago, IL): Really shutdown and hard to read. There was some earthy notes stirring underneath, but this was just too tight.
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4/5/2013 - KeithAkers wrote:
A night of (mostly) Northern Rhones (The Bristol, Chicago IL): This just didn't want to show anything. It was tight as a drum and no amount of coaxing really helped it open up.
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2/2/2013 - tooch wrote: 93 Points
Cassoulet Night (Jimmy's Apartment - Chicago, IL): Pop and pour. Not many Cote-Rotie's still have this type of rustic and lithe profile and these are just a pleasure to drink. The nose has aromas of sausage, violets, olive, and tobacco. Incredibly silky palate that's airy, yet powerful. Great balance of dark fruits, rustic, earthy tones and dried meats. A great package.
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10/29/2012 - salil wrote: 93 Points
Another fantastic bottle. Everything I want in Côte-Rôtie; meaty, floral and peppery notes around black olives and pure red fruits, and really elegant with a sense of purity and a delicate touch to the flavours.
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9/29/2012 - salil wrote: 91 Points
Much richer than the '98 with the fruit a lot more prominent here, and savory meaty/saline/ashy flavors in the background. This is really primary, but given the material, structure and balance here I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes.
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9/11/2012 - salil wrote: 93 Points
Quite a contrast with the '09; the fruit's nowhere near as dense and ripe here, and the meaty, saline and floral flavours are much more prominent here. Again there's a sense of finesse and elegance to the texture that makes it very appealing to drink with fine grained tannins, and impressive length. Levet always seems to deliver.
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5/12/2012 - salil wrote: 93 Points
Textbook Côte-Rôtie; a little tannic and tightly wound initially but opens with air into a wonderfully fragrant, elegant wine conveying layers of vivid meaty, savoury earthy, violet and fresh red fruited flavours with a gentle, polished texture. Levet always seems to deliver.
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5/14/2007 - Siggy wrote:
2007 France Trip - Vernay, Levet, Clusel-Roch, Jasmin (Northern Rhone): Foudre sample. Super-fragrant nose of ripe, crushed blackberries. Inky. Dark coffee. Big power and structure; seems to be in a more rustic/tannic style (or phase) than the Journares. Very promising.
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