About this WINE
Domaine Robert Niero
Robert Niero spent 13 years working in a bank before marrying the late Jean Pinchon`s daughter and thus inheriting holdings in some of Condrieu's most illustrious vineyards. He made further purchases and now has just under 6 hectares of vineyards. .
The Syrah grape variety, from which Côte Rôtie is made, is cultivated in the community of Ampuis in La Vallière (0.60ha) and Semons in Coteau de Bassenon (1.20ha).
Since 1994 Robert has vinified separately the Viogner grapes from his holdings in the Coteau de Chery and La Roncharde vineyards (the latter goes into Condrieu Les Ravines). The average vine age in the Coteau de Chery is high (30-50 years old) and the wines are powerful, well-structured and often exotically rich.
His son Rémi joined the domain in 2004.
Syrah/Shiraz
A noble black grape variety grown particularly in the Northern Rhône where it produces the great red wines of Hermitage, Cote Rôtie and Cornas, and in Australia where it produces wines of startling depth and intensity. Reasonably low yields are a crucial factor for quality as is picking at optimum ripeness. Its heartland, Hermitage and Côte Rôtie, consists of 270 hectares of steeply terraced vineyards producing wines that brim with pepper, spices, tar and black treacle when young. After 5-10 years they become smooth and velvety with pronounced fruit characteristics of damsons, raspberries, blackcurrants and loganberries.
It is now grown extensively in the Southern Rhône where it is blended with Grenache and Mourvèdre to produce the great red wines of Châteauneuf du Pape and Gigondas amongst others. Its spiritual home in Australia is the Barossa Valley, where there are plantings dating as far back as 1860. Australian Shiraz tends to be sweeter than its Northern Rhône counterpart and the best examples are redolent of new leather, dark chocolate, liquorice, and prunes and display a blackcurrant lusciousness.
South African producers such as Eben Sadie are now producing world- class Shiraz wines that represent astonishing value for money.
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Description
The Niero Côte Rôtie reminds me, rather surprisingly, of Domaine de Sénéchaux in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, only in the broadest sense that what used to be a perfectly pleasant but rather jammy and uncomplicated wine, has, over time, blossomed into a serious vin de garde with all the trappings of an expensive up-bringing. A blend from top sites, La Viallière in the North and Bassenon in the South, the wine is assembled after the first fermentation and has 14 months in barrel of which 20% is new. Rich and smoky the 2010 is very prometteur, with dense fruit and and impessive grippy tannins at the back.
Simon Field MW, BBR Buyer, February 2012
The hand-over from Robert to Rémi is technically complete, but Robert shows no sign of retiring and it is always good to see him when we go to taste the wines. His temperament is such, however, that his presence can only be positive, as he surveys the resumption of good work which he started, taking advantage of very good plots in both Condrieu, where they own 6 hectares, and Côte Rôtie (3 hectares) and transforming the Domaine from a merely very good one to one of the key references.
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