Domaine Rostaing, Cote Rotie, Cuvee Classique

Stunning. Decanted off minimal sediment 30 minutes in advance then aerated back into bottle before serving. This is in the zone - great time to drink.

1999 vintage

Still very dark, deep red and black core. Lifted intense fragrance, violets, licorice, blueberries, rich soy and tar spice, sweetly fragrant leather. Lovely. Absolutely silky, perfect mature texture, long finish still with super fine furry tannins. Nearing the end of its mature plateau possibly. Lovely crushed herbs, leather, blueberry compote, mineral spice, graphite, great complexity but seamlessly woven together.

1999 vintage

Final bottle from a full case purchased at auction in 2016. Pristine condition, perfect level and cork. Not decanted, opened two hours in advance. Bowing out gracefully - this is a very fine bottle. Fresh and vibrant after a quarter of a century, crushed raspberries and strawberries, floral lift and spicy depth, beginnings of meaty evolution, light to medium body, mild tannins, flowing finish with good length. Lovely wine - 1999 was a perfect year for Côte-Rôtie, and it shows …

1999 vintage

Drinking so good. Olive, Menthol. Fantastic fruit. Great acidity. 10 plus years to go

1999 vintage

Medium brownish garnet. Sediments. Bricking. Smoke, tobacco leaf, spice, forest floor, and mushroom. Mature blackberry fruit with fig, date note. Briny and meaty midpalate. Savory, earthy, herbal, peppery finish. Very long. This wine probably peaking right now. Wonderfully complex with a gamut of tertiary nuances, while retaining balance and intensity.

1999 vintage

I've had hit and miss experiences with Rostaing before, but this bottle is convincing. Spectacular showing, and everything I look for in old school Côte-Rôtie. Layers of olives, smoke, savoury meatiness, and highed toned herbal/peppery notes frame gentle red fruited flavours, and the overall palate presence is stunning - really silken and polished with fine grained tannins and bright acids giving it lift. Beautiful wine.

1992 vintage

Rhône Tasting-cum-Lunch (Restaurant Rijsel, Amsterdam, NL) : Structurally completely intact, warm spices and red meat, deep yet elegant, silky texture, mostly resolved tannins, showing a bit of wood, slightly drying but perfumed finish.

1999 vintage

WIMPS #153 Northern Rhône 27th May 2022 (La Trompette, Chiswick) : My favourite of the Côtes Rôties. Lovely peppery, cinnaomon bark and star anise nose. There is something like a sliced steak and oodles of red fruits and a touch of smoke. Later some tea adds to the mix. The palate is rich and long. Superbly balanced and some further red and black fruits with fully resolved tannins.

1999 vintage

Last bottle = best bottle. Smoky, bramble fruit. Restrained and with less oxidative, stewed notes than past bottles have shown. Very enjoyable.

1999 vintage

Nice freshness with resolved structure and dark ripe fruit. Perceptible clear alcohol throughout the palate. 90-91

1999 vintage

Cote Rotie Double Blind (Chicago) : A modest but classic nose of meaty, smoky black fruits with florals. Palate is a bit four-square with black fruit that has subtle amounts of pepper and meat. Seems this is running out of steam.

2000 vintage

Double Blind Côte-Rôtie Tasting (House of Nanda - Chicago IL) : Double blind in Côte-Rôtie tasting. Black cherry with as much earth and mushroom, finishing with roasted meat on good finish with medium length. Time to drink up.

2000 vintage

[Blind] Nose is rustic, scorched earth, cola / sarsaparilla spice. Surprisingly wild and I even find some animalistic character. I think I am enjoying this more than anyone else in the group today. Palate however is back in line with a more heavy-handed oak polish and woody black fruit. Controversial but I enjoyed this.

1999 vintage

Was expecting more but aged well and nice finish. Unexciting is the word for this bottle. Tonight 5th night probably best night.

2000 vintage

Eighth bottle from a case purchased at auction in 2016. This is starting to show its age - it is becoming a bit fragile. The explosive aromatics continue to impress (warm spices, red meat, violets, raspberries, granite), but the structure is becoming a bit precarious, the tannins are mostly resolved and the acidity is separating ever so slightly. Long and complete finish. Drink up.

1999 vintage

Quite spicy with a bit of hoisin in the background. Lovely plum fruit flavours. Starting to decay a little and not in a hugely favourable way as there resides a rather shrill and youthful sweetness which competes with the tantalising glimpses of old leather RAC wingbacks. I may wait a dozen or so years before opening the next one in order to properly savour the attendant mulchy, guttural vibe.

2000 vintage

93+. Surprisingly pinot like flavors on the palate with medium bodied elegance, but bigger thicker fruit. Sandy and fine sediment decanted off. Drank after 5 hours air per recommendations here on CT.

1999 vintage

Tasted blind. Mushrooms, tobacco, leather, and plum on the perfectly mature nose. Lovely flavors of tobacco, red fruit, and plum on the palate with quite resolved tannins that added a bit of structure. Nice finish. Didn't really strike me as Syrah and I can only see this decline from here (i.e. tasted older than 20 years), but I enjoyed it.

2000 vintage

Slightly disjointed

1999 vintage

That is Fantastic. Great fruit. Along with everything a great Cote Rotie is supposed to include. Love this. Post Memorial Day flood! Lol

1999 vintage

Dark rich colour. I hope iron filings, tar, licorice, blackberries earth, old oak and pepper. Fleshy, smooth well balanced and long. Fine furry tannins and good acidity. In brilliant shape. Has opened up nicely, cassis, raspberry, ink, blueberry, white pepper, graphite and tar. Dark and brambly, delicious.

1999 vintage

Fascinating wine, in a great place. After a couple hours showing a potent nose of olives, meaty fat, dark fruit, green onion. Medium+ weight palate with more olives and dark cherry, long finish and good balance. Not as silky as some N. Rhone but developed to a good place.

1999 vintage

Brilliant Give it time, an absolute journey over 5 amazing hours from classic fresh old bones to singing full blossom symphony.

1999 vintage

Friday V-day late night at Maison Dakota. Pop and poured. Drank over 3 hours. Drank in Gabriel Standart. Tasted blind. Appearance is not clear, fine sediments, pale intensity, garnet colour. Legs. Nose is dirty, medium+ intensity, with aromas of smelly sweaty musky bretty animals, earth, dirty wood, red cherries. Developed. On the palate, dry, high acidity, medium alcohol (13%), soft velvety medium tannins, medium+ body. Medium+ flavour intensity, with flavours of vegetals, green undergrowth, earth, bretty animal meat, bacon fat, …

1999 vintage

Beautiful wine, drinking well w/ no signs of fading. Some orange tinge at rim. Dark chocolate deep berry aromas with tobacco, bl olives, excellent length. Enjoyed w/ venison.

1999 vintage

Drinking well - alluring with secondaries on the nose; palate may be on the wane though?

1999 vintage

Cellaraid Discovery Box; 5/19/2017-5/26/2021 (Delivered to Home) : Interesting that the nose is nicely balanced with blueberry, rose, mint, grass, paprika, earth, and meats. More savoury on the palate with cloves, meat, soy, then rose, grass, blueberry and liquorice. Pretty nice

2000 vintage

A private lunch with friends (at home) : Another star performance today. Amazing mineral freshness, smoked bacon and vibrant fruit, a tribute to the quality of the great 1999 vintage. Not tired at all, good future still.

1999 vintage

Very nice to see this again - gutted to have drunk my own stash. Dark, full robe, wonderful complex nose, mature and layered, yet with plenty of fruit, tobacco, bacon, olives - very elegant côte-rôtie - that will live on. #Palægade#OnkelE

1999 vintage

1999 Rene Rostaing Côte-Rôtie Blomster, rødbær, lær og blod på nese. Jordbær, rips, tobakk, underskog og einebær i munn. Elegant og lineær. Harmonisk og lineær. Lang! Ungdommelig frukt og fremdeles plenty struktur. Varer i mange år til. 91-92

1999 vintage

Game @ The Harwood Arms (Harwood Arms, London) : Deep ruby. Really quite plush on the nose with a freshness and slight lift coming through. Dark red fruit. Quite dense. Fresh with a good line. Densely silky. Best Rostaing in a while. ****

1999 vintage

Tasting @ VINEUM in Rotterdam. Tasted blind. Black pepper, black fruits. Some positive tea notes. Drink now...

1999 vintage

Badly corked.

2000 vintage

More character than the Jasmin served vis-avis; richer, yet more elegant and vibrant with a wonderful sauvage character. Juicy and open for business - not no hurry to drink this. #PB

2000 vintage

Much darker compared to the 2000 Jasmin, more depth, more character. Just a tad ripe as well. Will keep.

2000 vintage

Smoky spice with a late finish almost like bacon! So smooth it's almost silky... Paired with a beautiful ribeye, and then picked up a hint of blackberry. I love this wine...

2000 vintage

Robe intense et profonde, comme un bassin d'encre. Elements tertiaires d'olive noir, de cuir et de fumée. Bouche élégante avec tanins veloutés. Un vin masculin avec une pointe de douceur et de féminité.

2000 vintage

Rich deep tobacco, mineral notes, opened after 20 minutes

1992 vintage

Great wine. Fabulous nose, delicate at first. Later on , very intense. The palate had herbs, wet saddle , earthy notes, and everpresent minerality. Tannins intact.

2000 vintage

Pretty funky on the nose, with good underlying fruit. Light weight, but packed a good punch of red fruit, kind of a beefy characteristic,but elegant and really a treat to drink now.

2000 vintage

An evening with Ib B (Frederiksberg) : Gamey nose. Quite light in color. Very balanced, very elegant, very typical – also for Rostaing, who is always about finesse, – lacks maybe a bit of concentration, if that is what you are looking for. Fully mature, but not going downwards just yet.

2000 vintage

This deep garnet/brick-colored wine was tasted in double-blind fashion, with the bottle kindly being provided to our Friday tasting group by K.J. The bottle's provenance was uncertain. Tobacco, bacon and earth dominated the aroma profile, with virtually no fruit. Medium-to-full-bodied and tart on the palate, the wine had virtually no residual tannins and was devoid of fruit flavor. Ending acerbic, this poor showing was most likely the result of a prematurely aged bottle.

2000 vintage

Sadly corked

2000 vintage

The colour quite dark at the core, but some brick red at the edge. The nose not that revealing, and the palate the same. I found this particular bottle to be quite closed at this point. Disappointing, since it is normally quite an offering.

2000 vintage

That's what Cote Rotie should in my opinion be all about, not about BIG BODY, heavy and overoaky concentration, like LaLaLa. This is a fine woven wine of elegance, parfume and delicacy, like the Cote Rotie from Clusel Roch. The impressions were so fine differentiated, like opening the doors of a Advent Calendar. It should not be decanted, it is just ready for opening up in the glass. Thumbs up !

2000 vintage

Rhone Night (Zeffir, Dunlop Street) : Disappointing from Rene Rostaing. While objectively a decent wine, it was also one of the most anonymous on the night. The nose was rather sweet at first, with a thick swirl of slightly candy cherries and then some earthy scents and a touch of herbs. Strange thing though was that it was all rather muted after the intial sweet aromas. The palate was rather better. It had a nice fresh, brightness going for it …

2000 vintage

Heavy weighty nose of herb and menthol. Bloody, meaty and iron, some sweet red fruit, lack of structure, simple, easy wine, without much depth..

2000 vintage

Somehow I have not had much luck with Cote Roties. Although I have not chanced upon the 3 big Guigal's "La's", the bottles I've had are made by supposedly good producers such as Bernard Burgaud and Rene Rostaing but they have fallen way below what one would expect from a prestigious french label. This particular one showed much promise on the nose, although there was a persistent hint of acidity and fruit vinegar throughout 5 hrs of aeration. Slight browning …

2000 vintage

sweet red fruit, quite light, no pepper or spice but slight green tinge like cabernet - not obviously rhone. very nice but drink now

2000 vintage

Having just uploaded most of my cellar, I noticed that this wine is supposed to be over the hill so thought I had better try it. Nothing wrong here - OK, so it's not the greatest Cote Rotie I've ever had but it's wonderfully smooth and velvety. Texturally I can't fault it. The fruit has softened considerably but there's enough there to make it come across as a very stylish wine. I'm going to route around for any more now!

2000 vintage

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Domaine Rostaing, Cote Rotie, Cuvee Classique

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