2013 Côte-Rôtie, Côte Blonde, Domaine Gilles Barge, Rhône

2013 Côte-Rôtie, Côte Blonde, Domaine Gilles Barge, Rhône

Product: 20138016106
 
2013 Côte-Rôtie, Côte Blonde, Domaine Gilles Barge, Rhône

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Description

Close to the Rostaing vineyards, this bijou plot was singled out to be a cuvée for the first time in 2013 and was farmed at a somewhat commercially challenging 13 hectolitres per hectare. Six barriques later, the wine is showing all the signs of being a classic, with a dense, brambly aroma and hints of cinnamon and wild strawberry completing the seduction. The palate does not disappoint with the classic Côte Rôtie calling cards of bacon rind, blackberry confit and olives all evidenced en bouche.
Simon Field MW - Rhône Buyer

New to our range, but a familiar face in Ampuis, M Barge has a reputation for forthright opinion and, in my experience, somewhat forthright wines which have historically had a tendency to being traditional to the point of rusticity. This appears to be changing as Gilles cedes more control to his son Julien and, two visits later, I am actually quite excited about the wines. Tradition is seldom a word that is used pejoratively at Berry Bros. & Rudd, and with this range there is a real sense of history and slow, subtle refinement, in both senses of the word.

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About this WINE

Domaine Barge

Domaine Barge

The wiry Gilles Barge is President of the Côte Rôtie Growers` Syndicat as well as running his own 6-hectare domaine. The majority of his holdings are in the Côte Brune and he produces rich long-lived Côte Rôties. He has no truck with the current fashion for destalking and ferments with all the stems still intact. The wines are then aged in large wooden piéces and foudres and are bottled unfined and unfiltered.

Crucially his final blends usually include around 5% Viognier and this gives the wines elegance and finesse. These are marvellously perfumed Côte Rôties that require 5-6 years bottle age but will still continue to improve for up to 15 years.

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Côte-Rôtie

Côte-Rôtie

Côte-Rôtie is one of the most famous of the northern Rhône appellations, with some single vineyard cuvées now selling for the same prices as First Growth Bordeaux. It is the northernmost outpost of the Syrah grape.

Côte-Rôtie translates as ‘roasted hillside’, as the south-facing slopes are exposed to the maximum-possible sunlight. Vines have been planted here since Roman times, although the appellation was only created in 1940. Today it covers 500 hectares, with 276 hectares of vineyards stretched across eight kilometres.

Phylloxera devastated vineyards in the late 1800s and Côte-Rôtie’s fortunes remained in the doldrums for another century. After the War, a farmer would receive double the price for a kilo of apricots as for a kilo of grapes, hence vineyards were grubbed up and wine production became increasingly smaller.

It has only really been recognised as a top-quality wine-producing area since the 1970s, with Guigal being the main impetus behind its revival. The two best slopes, Côte Brune and Côte Blonde, rise steeply behind Ampuis and overlook the river. The Côte Brune wines are much firmer and more masculine (the soils are clay and ironstone), whereas the Côte Blonde makes wines with more finesse and elegance due to its light, sandy-limestone soil. Both the Côte Brune and Côte Blonde vineyards rise to 1,000 feet, with a gradient of 30 to 50 degrees.

The wines are made from the Syrah grape, however up to 20 percent of Viogner can be used in the blend, adding finesse, elegance and floral characteristics to the wine. Viognier ripens more quickly than Syrah and the appellation rules stipulate that the grapes must be added to the fermentation – rather than blended later. The best Côte-Rôtie are very deep in colour, tannic and spicy, and need 10 years to evolve and develop.

There are nearly 60 official vineyards (lieux-dits); the best-known are: La Mouline, La Chatillonne (Vidal-Fleury, owned by Guigal) and La Garde (Rostaing) in Côte Blonde; La Viallière, (Rostaing), La Landonne (Guigal, Rostaing) and La Turque (Guigal) in Côte Brune.

Styles vary from heavily-extracted tannic wines which need many years to soften through to lighter, supple and less-structured wines which do not require extended bottle ageing. The most famous wines of Côte-Rôtie are Guigal’s three single-vineyard cuvées: La Mouline, La Turque and La Landonne. These are aged in new wood for 48 months, and demand for them amongst connoisseurs and collectors is significant, leading to prices sometimes comparable to Bordeaux First Growths.

Recommended producers: Guigal, Gerrin, Rostaing, Ogier, Burgaud

Best vintages: 2006, 2005, 2004, 2001, 1999, 1991, 1990, 1985

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Syrah/Shiraz

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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