Jean-Luc Jamet Cote-Rotie Les Terrasses 2019 1.5L

Les Terrasses is the wine that announced Jean-Luc Jamet's emergence as a serious force in his own right — and its pedigree explains why expectations were so high from the very first vintage. The domaine was created in 2013, when brothers Jean-Luc and Jean-Paul Jamet went their separate ways — the Jamet family name having long been regarded as the benchmark of the Northern Rhône, with Jean-Luc using his prestigious holdings of some of Côte-Rôtie's greatest sites — La Landonne, Chavaroche and Lancement — to create this impressive wine. The blend is 100% Syrah from five hectares spanning Lancement, Bonnivières, Chavaroche, Mornachon, Côte Baudin, Moutonnes, Les Rochains and Fongeant, with around 65% destemmed fruit, a 21-day vinification using wild yeasts with twice-daily pumping-overs and one cap punching, aged 20 to 30% new oak across a mix of 300, 228 and 500-litre casks for ten months, fined but unfiltered. 

Aromatic waves of sumptuous dark berry fruits, exotic Asian spices, violets, crushed black peppercorns, dried herbs, garrigue and savoury game notes rise imperiously out of the glass in the best vintages — a wine that is bold and powerful yet sleek, incredibly intense and seamlessly elegant at the same time. There are layers of brambly dark fruit, juicy yet fresh with a stony depth; the palate powerful, grippy and intense, with waves of black fruit matched by woody hedgerow tones from a little whole-bunch, lithe with bright acids bringing refreshing red fruit to the mix.