May 13, 2023 - Exetrmely pure and elegant, with bright acidity Still very young even after decanting > 1 hour. Would wait 5 years.
October 2, 2022 - A Panzer bottle.
This bottle redeemed itself on Night 2. On Night 1 I tried 1.5 glasses from a Coravin and it had a profile similar to a $18 Guigal Cotes du Rhone. It was thin and devoid of any CR character.
Prior to Night 2, I decanted for about 8 hours at room temp; rebottled for about an hour. This proved to be a smart move. The wine took on more weight and depth. Some CR character emerged, but it left more to be desired at this price point. A bit of briny/olive character with a minor ash characteristic.
This is not a poorly made wine, but it begs the question on pricing for this particular vintage. I'll stick with Levet, Jamet, etc.
August 18, 2022 - This was a funky wine. On night one it had very little fruit, a ton of brett and was very ashy. Night two it can around a little with brett fading but remained light with no intensity or fruit. Ash, olive brine and some animal. A fine wine but just not interesting to me.
May 15, 2022 - This was sick. For about 45 minutes was generic natty Syrah and then bukakke of dank vibes with blackberry fruit and smoke and hot tobacco and musky perfume. Dialed into a wave and never wavered. This was just intense and beautiful. No VA or other flaws. While also a dual label and imported by Source, is not really very Rotie. And even at 12.5 just bitch slapped at modern WA wine open at same time. Wow. A primal wine.
March 6, 2022 - This was a Polaner bottle - sourced from Panzer. No obvious flaws. No VA. But either shut down or just not very good. I think the later. Kept half the bottle a day to see if it improved. It did slightly flesh-out, but consistent with the current designation. This is a 10E table wine.
December 24, 2021 - Another sound bottle of this. Based on this bottle this has potentially closed down a bit. It needed a good hour or so in the decanter to open, but very good once it did.
December 18, 2020 - The 2013 vintage of this wine started my love of Cote Rotie. It was amazing. So when I saw the 2015 vintage available, I quickly purchased half a case. THEN I read the reviews here and on wine bezerker and I started to get very worried that I'd just wasted $750 on a half case of bad wine. I had to wait 5 months to get the wine due to weather and then let it sit a little before opening. Finally, I opened my first bottle tonight.
The bottle had 2 labels as others have described with a "vin de France. Syrah" label covering the original Cote Rotie label. It was imported by The Source Importers of Moorpark, CA.
On opening the wine is very tight. High tannin and no fruit. But none of the VA issues others have described. This was not a flawed bottle, but it desperately needed air. After 2 hour in the decanter it improved dramatically. Some muted tobacco aroma that I loved in the 2013 started to appear. Also some chocolate and smoked meat flavors emerged and the tannins rounded a little, although it retained a long finish. All in all, I enjoyed the bottle, but it was nowhere near as good as I remembered the 2013 being. Will definitely let my remaining 5 bottles rest for a while.
October 30, 2020 - No bueno. Decent fruit but the acids are volatile and this deteriorated with air. Did not finish the bottle.
Such a terrible shame. This has absolutely nothing in common with the brilliant '10-13 Cordeloux, which are ageing phenomenally.
August 20, 2020 - Niche Niche 8/20: Served blind to friends after Niche Niche. Colin had mentioned that this may be the worst wine he's ever had, which it has not been in my experience. This was given a 3/4 hour decant, but......it's just not great. It's not flawed, but not great. It's very grapey, there's a touch of VA and it never develops particular complexity; instead, a chocolate note begins to emerge as it stays longer in the decanter. Remains a fund blind but more as a curiosity.
August 4, 2020 - A Polaner bottle, drunk over two evenings - consistent with my previous bottle, no evidence of flaws, heat or spoilage, just young, though not without charm.
I will say that this doesn’t seem like a long ager to me, I reckon it will be expressive in 5 years and will drink well in 10. Will be interesting to how this evolves alongside its peers.