2018 Rene Rostaing Côte-Rôtie La Landonne

Community Tasting Notes (5) Avg Score: 94.2 points

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  1/4/2024 - Rote Kappelle Likes this wine: 93 Points

  There was a time when I considered myself a Prince amongst the Rostywallahs, as we rampaged through life. My commitment to the cause of Rostyness was deep and full blooded; I was like the protagonist in Rudyard 'Rosty' Kippling's The Man Who Would Be Rosty King.
  
  Then the shadows of doubt began to creep in as I wound my way deep into my Rosty anabasis. A brace of disappointing 1999's amongst other things began to cast doubt on the age worthiness of these wines; it was as though Tissaphernes had reappeared to waylay my wine drinking Clearchus. Now, it is never a good thing to have your Clearchus waylaid, nor rough hands laid upon it.
  
  As I stayed true to my Rosty destiny my dwindling stock of faith took further blows. An almost undrinkable, murky 2015 Cote Blonde and a series of fairly ho-hum Ampodiums, rescued somewhat by a perplexing but not altogether unenjoyable 2016 La Landonne were surely my battle on the Zapatas River.
  
  Battling on, I come to this wine and the moment of crisis. I stand deep in the mountains of doubt, assailed from all sides by the filthy Medes and their nasty subjects. The cork leaves the bottle like Xenophon's dream in the mountains that leads to an escape.
  
  The wine opens with a heady mix of stemmy characters, some greenery that will thrill the Stoners, a little pepper and juniper and a thing that sometimes seems to elude Rosty, fruit, glorious fruit! This is a wine of bold spirit, but the mouthfeel is silky, the tannins are supple and hold the wine together without causing tannin terror.
  
  Like the Hellenes in the mountains catching sight of the sea and the city of Trebizond, I cry out 'Rosty! Rosty! Oh Rosty My True Love!' (being dreadful Mediterranean types the Hellenes cried out 'Thalatta' - the sea - but we forgive them). My Rostyness is saved. A Rostywallah I remain.
  
  This wine is good, damned good.
  
  I would be really cautious about cellaring Rosty beyond 5-10 years. I think there is a lot of winemaking voodoo in what they do. Too often the whole bunch stuff seems to give early appeal, but the wines rapidly collapse into a swamp of ashy, mulch, silage rubbish in which you may search in vain for love or grape.
  
  Like Xenophon, I am a modest genius and I recognise that my yellow bellied doubts about cellaring Rosty may be the stuff of much harumphing and the casting of aspersions as to my competence to pass such judgements. If your palate tells you I am more Mede than honest Hellene, then by all means cellar away. For my part, I plan to drink my 2018 Rosties at least one per year from here. I tend to subscribe to the view that when a wine gives pleasure, that is the time to drink it. With this wine, that time is now. 'Thalatta'! Rosty, to thee I remain a true but no longer blindly loyal servant.

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  11/26/2023 - Philippe_C wrote: 95 Points

  Nice ripe black fruit, mineral nose... Nice freshness, delicate tannin.

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  3/5/2023 - Pinot Peter Likes this wine:

  Dark red/black in colour, good acidity, nose of violets, for me mostly flavours of black current, slight raspberry, chocolate and earthiness with a beautiful lingering subdued enticing sweetness. I decanted this bottle and let it sit for a few hours before drinking it. This was a wonderful bottle of wine. This will age well and gain more complexity with time.

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  2/5/2023 - Philippe_C wrote: 97 Points

  Fruits noirs très mûrs... Bouche très gourmande, cerise rouge et noire, loads of ripe tannin, very concentrated.

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  7/10/2022 - Xavier Auerbach wrote: 94 Points

  Rhône Tasting-cum-Lunch (Restaurant Rijsel, Amsterdam, NL): Warm and powerful style, rich colour, quite big even for a Rostaing Landonne (with 14.5% ABV), slightly plummy but still precise, pure and polished, gentle sweetness from the fruit, refined tannins, excellent length. On the second day this displays lots of sticky tannins, but (surprisingly) it is not as tannic as the 2019’s, there is lovely floral lift on the nose and a hint of chocolate on the finish. Completely intact on the third day.

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