February 7, 2024 - Opened as part of a tasting with Alex Macdonald and while he was in town. Day two was a small group of us with killer wines (2010 Chave Hermitage, mag of ‘02 Krug, Selosse Substance, 1996 Latour, 2003 Mouton, 1992 Dominus).
Quick one hour double decant to prep this beauty. While La Mouline is my favorite, La Turque still incorporates the co-ferment with Viognier. 93 Syrah/7 Viognier.
Beautiful translucent ruby in the glass. As I get with certain Cote Rotie wines (especially Guigal), barbecue and bacon fat can be overwhelming when young, but this has channeled a really balanced profile. Aromatic notes of smoked meat, cherry liqueur, and espresso. Beautifully rich yet elegant on the palate. Great nerve of acidity with a finish sporting plenty of tannin to carry this a while. Black peppered raspberries, black fruit on the palate with a little bacon and a hint of sweet/tangy red fruit at the core note. Enjoy now with a short decant or hold another 5yrs.
September 12, 2023 - Such a damn good wine. 5 h were needed to let it blossom. Will be even better in 5 to 10 years. Need more 97+
July 3, 2023 - July 4th Mondo Event (Atlanta, GA): Tasted blind. Drinking in a great spot now with integrated tannin, some lovely spice on the backend, some sweet tannins and a kiss of oak. I struggled to place this wine, but most called it N. Rhone.
June 10, 2023 - Popped and poured. Very clear, even right off the bat, that this is not your ordinary Cote Rotie. Very young in appearance, after 20 years! More red/violet than anything. Brilliant, with full legs. This bottle, purchased only a year or two ago, has obviously been very well kept. Smoky, meaty aromas arising from the glass already. Seems very polished in the mouth, with a glass-like texture, but there is power here, too. Placeholder note for now, rating after it airs a bit more. A bit more than two hours in, this is developing some white pepper in the nose to go along with the meaty elements. Not much development in the mouth so far. Now about four hours in, raw meat in the nose. Flavors mostly blackberries and earth; rather monolithic to me. This wine has such a freshness about it, seems so young, I wonder if it needs more time to reveal more charms (or is this as good as it gets?). At the moment, more lean than I would have expected, but that may just be the vintage, which was good but not great by all accounts. My rating, after tasting over several hours of sipping: 5-13-16-8: 92/100.
March 11, 2023 - Guigal’s La-La-La horizontal, wine #1/3. 93% Syrah & 7% Viognier, vines average 28 years of age, aged for 42 months in new oak. For me it was the smokiest of the trio heavenly concentrated, but not as powerful as Landone or delicate as Moulin. Heavily smoked complex aroma of smoked cold cuts, roasted raw beef, dried strawberries, char, leather, scorched earth, dried tomatoes. Full body, concentrated and multilayered with core smoky flavours, spices and salty edges with bright acidity and rich but smooth tannins.
After 9 hours became more polished and elegant with more herbal and black tea infused flavours.
July 10, 2022 - This is a damn good bottle of wine. If you can get past the oaky notes on this Cote Rotie (and get over it you should), there is crazy blackberry Fruit and earthy elements to marvel over The texture while not heavy is silky. There is impact and precision and a good bit of fun. Traditional? Nope. But I don’t need tradition every day when a wine is made this well. Wonderful and squarely in the drinking window. (95)
March 12, 2022 - Private dinner @ Little Cove, Noosa. This wine remains deeply coloured with a dark cherry hue and a fine nose of blackberry, dark cherries, raspberries and touches of bacon, Asian spice and gravel. The palate was quite rich with a spherical entry of fruit and a soft long finish with plenty of earth and spice to balance the fruit. A lovely delicious wine that showed both balance and aromatic subtlety in its overall impact.
December 24, 2021 - After 5 hour decant. Nose was much bigger when I first poured out into decanter. Now nose much muted. Tar, blackberry, lavender. In the mouth viscous, tannins very soft, and tight acidic backbone. I’m really enjoying it but rather disappointed nose has largely disappeared. Maybe would have been bigger without as long a decant.
October 20, 2021 - Fragrant nose, meaty palatte.
September 28, 2021 - The youngest red of a lovely Cote Rotie evening. There were other Turques (91 and 98) and this 04 was not quite at the same level, but definitely a totally gorgeous glass. Having had Mouline 04 recently this felt a bit more soaring and monolithic vs the more balanced Mouline from memory. All about primary fruit today and should be really nice with another 5-10 years of bottle age.