Rene Rostaing Cote-Rotie La Viaillere 2019

René Rostaing is one of the great modern names in Côte-Rôtie. He began making wine in the 1960s and released his first recorded vintage in 1971, married into the family of the legendary Albert Dervieux, and now works alongside his daughter Pauline and her husband Alex. La Viaillère (also written Viallière) is a single-vineyard wine that returned to the range in 2016 after a gap since the mid-1990s, and its label was graced with Dervieux's old design. It comes from the high, rocky slopes in the northern part of Côte-Rôtie. About a third of the vineyard is made up of Rostaing's oldest vines, some over a century old, and the rest was replanted in the 1980s. In the cellar, vinification is modern and controlled, with barrel use kept restrained. In very small years the wine is skipped altogether, as in 2020, when it was blended into the Ampodium.

The result is a leaner, more mineral and more focused wine than the opulent La Landonne. Black raspberry, violet, camphor, graphite and peppered meat come with smoke and licorice, with olive and bacon notes building in the glass. The palate is full-bodied but tight, with a dense mid-palate, ultra-fine tannins and a very long, iron-edged finish.