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| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 92 pts. and median of 91 pts. in 12 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by Deux Chevaux on 12/26/2023: Dark ruby. Bright and quite expressive, with suggestions of white ground pepper and characteristic roasted meats. Very enjoyable over three nights, gassed in between. (391 views) | | | Tasted by wythes on 7/9/2022 & rated 91 points: Not bad. Good nose. Relatively smooth on the palate. better than the first bottle I had about 2 years ago perhaps the additional years have been good for this wine. (1068 views) | | | Tasted by aero on 10/17/2020: Medium bodied, modern style. Much too young, tightly wound, and tannic today for a full note. Give it 3-5 years minimum. A blend of light florality with rich, volcanic body. Though not as terroir-driven as I prefer. Billon doesn't disappoint, and a good QPR for any Syrah at this level let alone Cote Rotie. (2010 views) | | | Tasted by chatters on 12/4/2019: First Wednesday Wine Club (Napoli in Bocca, Haberfield): Served blind. wild ferment, unripe black fruit, savoury. In the mouth it's got massive chalky tannins & sour dark fruit. I guessed young Languedoc Roussillon (2468 views) | | | Tasted by sid_loves_wine on 10/26/2019 & rated 96 points: Beautiful gem from the Northern Rhône, easily in the top several wines I've ever had, even opened so young. I don't have experience with the top Cote Rotie wines (the high end Guigal/Rostaing/Jamet etc), but if this incredible QPR at $50 is any indication of regional quality, I better start saving up. Nose of inky blueberry and hoisin sauce with a bit of cedar and vanilla, enclosed in a wall of olive tapenade and just a teeny hint of funk. Palate was pure silk and violets with incredible intensity of flavor and acidity but impossibly light and crystalline. Seemed a lot like a delicious and elegant Faury St. Joseph or Arnot-Roberts Sonoma Coast Syrah, but with much more exuberance and complexity, for barely more cost.
Other commenters are right that its too young; this will be downright orgasmic with 5-10 years on it in a good cellar. But! Its defintiely not closed; a little tight and tannic, but already expressive and highly enjoyable. Would love to try one in full bloom eventually. (2438 views) | | | Tasted by mpsocal on 10/5/2019 & rated 90 points: This has got some rich fruit with a hint of tar on the finish. Took awhile to open up but still seems very tight. Could probably use a few more years in the cellar. (1907 views) | | | Tasted by David J Cooper on 12/11/2018 & rated 90 points: Fairly dark red. Tight concentrated nose, BlackBerry, earth, and some pepper but not jumping out of the glass, Delicious concentrated fruit and lots of tannins.
Needs time. (2467 views) | | | Tasted by brigcampbell on 6/7/2018: We have a winner here boys and girls. This is a great wine and showed beautifully even though it's wildly inmature at this stage. Extremely dark purple colored, like a cali petite Sirah. Nose is light black olive and blackberry fruit. This has sage, incense and a big gritty white chalk foundation. It's concentrated, everything in large amounts. I slow ox for 8 hours and it might not have made a difference. The tannins are firm and well represented. Fun to drink now and very cellar worthy. (1719 views) | | | Tasted by Frank Murray III on 6/7/2018: Poured blind. This was terrific and my favorite of the evening's six wines. The aromas, color and flavor markers all suggested to me something that could be either Halcon Alturas or Copain Brosseau syrahs, both made here in California. There was some new wood (at least that's how I perceived it) to be in the aroma and also inside of the palate, which would be counter to both the producers I mentioned, as neither of them raises their wines in new oak (for sure Copain, as I am certain all of his Brosseau is done in neutral wood). The aromatics reminded me of Brosseau, with the crushed/powdered rock, dried flower and herb (as I assume some whole cluster was at play here, too). The palate was really nice, showing dark, inky fruit, with black olive, tar, slate, blueberry and black cherry and finishing with a good size amount of tannin/grip. I really appreciated this wine and it has a youthfulness that will make it attractive to cellar and enjoy for some time. (2603 views) |
| By Josh Raynolds
Vinous, '16 vs. '15 Northern Rhône: Heads You Win, Tails You Win (Apr 2018) (4/18/2018)
(Maryline Et Christophe Billon Côte-rôtie Les Elotins Red) Subscribe to see review text. |
NOTE: Scores and reviews are the property of Vinous. (manage subscription channels) |
| Syrah Varietal article (Wikipedia) | (Wines Northwest)
Note that some producers in the Northern Rhone distinguish between simply Syrah and "Serine", the latter described as ‘an ancient clone of Syrah, the berries of which are more oval-shaped and less deeply pigmented than Syrah’ by producer Tardieu-Laurent. Les Elotinsis actually not a single vienyard or lieux-dit. The wine with this name is a cuvee. ExplanationFrance Vins de France (Office National Interprofessionnel des Vins ) | Pages Vins, Directory of French Winegrowers | French Wine (Wikipedia)
Wine Scholar Guild vintage ratings
2018 vintage: "marked by a wet spring, a superb summer and a good harvest"
2019 vintage reports
2021: "From a general standpoint, whether for white, rosé or red wines, 2021 is a year marked by quality in the Rhône Valley Vineyards. Structured, elegant, fresh and fruity will be the main keywords for this new vintage."
2022 harvest: idealwine.info | wine-searcher.comRhône Guide to the wines, wineries and appellations in the Rhone Valley The Rhône Valley/Le Vins de la Vallée du Rhône (Comité Interprofession des vins AOC Côtes et vallée du Rhône)
### Wine Scholar Guild's Rhône valley vintage charts & ratings ###Northern Rhône Guide to the wines and appellations of the Northern Rhone Valley -
The Rhône Valley/Le Vins de la Vallée du Rhône (Comité Interprofession des vins AOC Côtes et vallée du Rhône)
Regional History:
Phocaean Greeks established viticulture in the Rhone as far back as 600 BC, but until the 14th century the wines were not seen outside the region. The establishment of the Avignonese Papacy (1305-1377) brought fame to the region's wine-so much so that their Burgundian neighbors to the north banned wines from the Rhone in 1446, a measure that effectively cut off trade with England and other Northern European markets for over 200 years. Stretching southward from Lyon to just south of Avignon, the Rhone produces a wide variety of wines, with the appellations north of Valence producing the least (in volume), and the towns south of Montelimar producing prodigious amounts. As in other regions, the most interesting wines come from small farms. Saint-Joseph, in the northern Rhone, extends for some distance between Condrieu in the north to Saint-Peray in the south. The reds are made from Syrah and the rare whites from Marsanne and Roussanne, and Viognier.
### 2017 vintage ###
"The first red wines already tasted in the Northern Rhône promise a beautiful vintage, with a quality close to the 2015 or even the 2009 vintage" - NEWRHÔNE MILLESIMESCôte-Rôtie Guide to Cote Rotie - Read about the Northern Rhone Valley
• The Appellation cover three communes - Saint-Cyr-sur-Rhône, Ampuis and Tupin-Semons - on the right Rhône river bank, within the Rhône "département".
• Soils : In the northern part of the vineyard, the Côte Brune, consists of extremely steep, terraced slopes of ferruginous mica schists which are covered with schist sand (arzel).The Côte Blonde has a varied geology with gneiss and granite predominating at the most southern side of the appellation.
• Climate : tempered continental. Dry, hot summers and frequent rainfalls during the other seasons. History : one of the oldest vineyards in France, first developed by the Romans. It is said that during the Middle Ages, "The Seigneur de Maugiron" bequeathed a hillside to each of his daughters, one was brunette and the other fair. Thus, were born the names of "Côte Brune" and "Côte Blonde".
• Area planted : 230 hectares (568 acres), for an annual production of 8,400 hectoliters (93,333 cases). Authorized maximum yield is 40 hectoliters/hectare (2,3 US tons/acre).
• Grape Varieties : Syrah (80% minimum). An addition of up to 20% of Viognier grapes in the crop is allowed.
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