Pressoir Dinner - Côte Rôtie - Recap

Did you know? Côte Rôtie is an appellation that went through some really difficult times and in fact almost disappeared back in the 1940’s after the WWII. Combine the lack of labor, unprofitability and extremely hard working conditions and you end up with a mere few dozens of hectares still in production back then. But luckily, the Phoenix rose from the ashes and today, it is around 230 hectares of vines planted under the appellation Côte Rôtie. If 230 hectares doesn’t speak to you, well, Prospect Park in Brooklyn is 213 hectares, you’re welcome.

This is a recap of a fabulous dinner Nikita and I hosted at Hearth on April 15th. Here are our notes!

Domaine Clusel Roch, Côte-Rôtie Les Grandes Places 2005 :

EDOUARD: Still very young, the wine was marked with the firmness of the vintage and it took half an hour to start detangling the tight structure. Nevertheless a serious wine. Les Grandes Places was the first vineyard purchased by the Clusels in 1935, a great name in Côte Rôtie with their winery located at the northern end of the appellation.

SURPRISE BOTTLE FROM OUR FRIEND BRIAN ORCUTT: Rostaing, Côte-Rôtie Côte Blonde 2010:

EDOUARD: A powerful style with notes of oak still perceptible, really interesting to compare with the 2005 magnum

Domaine Jean Michel Stephan, Côte-Rôtie Coteaux de Bassenon 2018

EDOUARD: Very unique Côte-Rôtie born of a blend of 40% Syrah, 40% Serine and 20% Viognier! Note: Serine is difficult to define but can be considered as the old cousin of Syrah, some will say the real Syrah of the Rhône, whose birthplace is in fact in the steep hills of Côte Rôtie. 20% Viognier is the maximum amount allowed in the blend but is rarely seen. Cool! The wines certainly showed floral notes and aromatic exuberance.

NIKITA: Côteaux de Bassenon is the most southerly vineyards in Côte-Rôtie and the majority of Jean-Michel’s vines in this parcel were planted in 1896. I don’t have much experience with a Côte Rôtie with 20% Viognier, so I was excited to open this up. The nose on this wine was unique,

Maison Stephan, Côte-Rôtie Coteaux de Tupin 2018

EDOUARD: From the same self proclaimed natural producer, Cotaux de Tupin is a different beast. This vineyard is all Serine, planted on gneiss and showed a more blackfruit, earthy personality.

Francois Villard, Côte-Rôtie Le Gallet Blanc 2018

EDOUARD: Change of scenery with Francois Villard, who owns 40 hectares and buys from another 24! Adept of whole cluster fermentation, Villard became certified organic in 2019 and his vineyards are mostly planted on schist rather than granite. I thought it was a very pretty wine, curiously not so much reminiscent of the black olives and bacon fat often found in that part of the appellation. I think the whole cluster fermentation provided a certain freshness and airiness. Quite floral too.

Domaine Jean Michel Gerin, Côte-Rôtie Vialliere 2017

EDOUARD: The vintage was tough with hail storms that dramatically reduced yields but what remained was wonderful and concentrated. Alexis Gerin today runs the show as the 3rd generation and he is a buddy of Guillaume Clusel from Clusel Roch mentioned above. Gerin prefers to use a destemmer and that parcel is from rather young vines (18 years old). Good wine but a touch reduced and the oak was still not very integrated.

Domaine Jean Michel Gerin, Côte-Rôtie Le Champin Seigneur 2017

EDOUARD: Similar notes regarding oak and reduction here.

Francois Villard, Côte-Rôtie Le Gallet Blanc 2017

EDOUARD: Back to Villard with again this elegant style and floral notes of violet.

Domaine Clusel Roch, Côte-Rôtie 2010

EDOUARD: A flight dedicated to Clusel Roch was a must! 2010 was exceptional in the region and this cuvee, now called cuvee Schist, is a blend of parcels all around the property in the northern portion of Côte-Rôtie. I always like this wine. Clusel partially destems and does a really good job with that process, finding perfect balance.

Domaine Clusel Roch, Côte-Rôtie Vialliere 2010

EDOUARD: Vialliere is located directly under Les Grandes Places and sits at 200-230m of altitude. The vineyard is rich in mica-schist and gives a more powerful wine. We are back to the more concentrated style of Grandes Places although a bit more “easy” and approachable. Here, the black olive notes were present.

SURPRISE BOTTLE FROM OUR FRIEND BRIAN ORCUTT: and what a surprise because it was Domaine Jamet, Côte Rôtie Côte Brune 1999!

EDOUARD: I have had some of my most intense wine emotions with Domaine Jamet. The wines are always intriguing and as they age, become simply dazzling. The first nose suggested those floral notes mentioned earlier but going back to the glass, I found a hint of smoke, later, another aromatic layer blossomed to unveil curious spices, cigar box and damp earth. Simply incredible and I know for a fact, still young because I was lucky to taste a bottle of 1990 that provided even more depth! It should be noted that 1999 was outstanding in the northern Rhône, with a few critics comparing it to 1947…

The wine of the night (so far!)

E. Guigal, Côte-Rôtie La Landonne 1989

EDOUARD: How to finish with a bang? Open a flight of old Lala’s…

Guigal is a highly respected northern Rhone producer (now also in the South) that did so much to revive these once abandoned vineyards. Another influential personality who played a crucial role in the reputation of these wines was wine critic Robert Parker who fell in love with the iconic Cote Rôtie of Guigal in the 1980’s he playfully rebaptized the Lala’s (La Landonne, La Turque and La Mouline)

Today, Guigal is responsible for a third of the Côte Rôtie production.

1989 was a year of drought that gave rich and opulent wines, especially here with La Landonne, a particularly steep vineyard (45% incline) nestled in the northern portion of the Côte Brune and high in iron oxide. Rarely destemmed, La Landonne is typically a powerhouse, but its decades of age helped taming the beast. Excellent, brooding wine.

NIKITA: Angular, that was the word that kept coming to me when I tried this La Landonne. Felt like this could just keep aging.

E. Guigal, Côte-Rôtie La Mouline 1988

EDOUARD: Interestingly, 1988 lived in the shadow of 1989, deemed exceptional. But this 1988 La Mouline was in fact my favorite wine of the night. I found it Burgundian and extremely refined. It is almost irrelevant to compare it to La Landonne 1989 because the vintages were very different with 1988 a cooler vintage. The two vineayrds are also very different. If La Landonne is located in the Côte Brune, La Mouline is part of the Côte Blonde to the south where granite reigns supreme. It is also the oldest vineyard of Côte-Rôtie. It is mostly destemmed by Guigal and around 10% of Viognier is co-planted with Syrah.

NIKITA: This was an enticing wine from start to finish.

Patrick Jasmin, Côte-Rôtie 1988

EDOUARD: A beautiful comparison of the vintage with an excellent bottle from Jasmin. A pioneer when it comes to bottling its own wines, Jasmin started doing so in 1909 after starting working as the chef of Chateau d’Ampuis! While he was working in the kitchen and always loved the wines of the region, a vineyard nearby became available and he bought it, literally throwing his apron! I find the wines from Jasmin very elegant. Whole cluster was the rule there until 1996 when destemming started as the newer generation took over the winery. This 1988 was youthful and beautifully perfumed.

NIKITA: Jasmin from the late 80’s and early 90’s somehow always deliver, a great example of why so many lovers of Burgundy appreciate Côte-Rôtie. Quite elegant.

News from the Vineyard; Further exploration in Côte-Rôtie

A few specific reflections on farming in some of the most famed Syrah vineyards in the world…

by Raj Vaidya

May 2nd, 2022

Last week I made mention of how the steep, often terraced terrain of Côte-Rôtie has been a deterrent historically to farming the vines organically. The difficulty in turning and ploughing soil and the inability in most places to work with a tractor have caused the appellation to be quite inundated with herbicide residues over the past 6 decades.

But this is changing slowly, with vignerons like Jean-Michel Stephan and Guillaume Clusel (who follows in the tradition of his parents, Gilbert and Brigitte) leading the way. You saw a short video last week of Pierre Rostaing explaning how he combats erosion and adds compost by breaking up the plant matter from pruning and leaving it on the top soil through the winter. In Clusel’s case, the use of cover crops is more a part of their program, as evidenced in the pictures below.

The Viallière vineyard is a great illustration of how the cover crops have aided against erosion as noted by the steepness in the video below.

There is certainly a long way to go, and the total surface of vineyards which are certified organic within the appellation remains extremely small. Most of the vineyards remain brown and compacted all summer long.

Be sure to check in next week when I introduce a tiny new producer in Sessyuel, just north of Côte-Rôtie who has planted an organic vineyard for the first time in a century, in a place where wine has been made since the Roman era…

A milestone celebration at Maison Clusel-Roch

by Daniel Johnnes

April 21, 2022

I was in Cote Rôtie this past Saturday attending the the retirement party of Brigitte and Gilbert Clusel-Roch, winemakers I met in 1992.

After reading about this producer in Clive Coates’ The Vine and having just started my import business, I was dreaming of adding a famous appellation such as Cote Rôtie to my blossoming portfolio.

Upon finding a fax number for them (no internet back then), I asked for a visit. Upon arrival, we spent about an hour talking about New York, wine, my background and my interest in their region and then several more hours tasting the current vintage, 1990, and older vintages of both the Cuvée Classique and Les Grandes Places, which were the only two wines they made at the time from about 2.5 hectares of vines in the Côte Brune district. Their other holdings are in Viallière, planted in 1984, Le Plomb, Champon and Fongeant which were all blended into the Classique. When Viallière reached 25 years of age in 2009, they started bottling it under that named “Lieu Dit”.

Gilbert’s first vintage was 1980 after taking over from his father, René Clusel, who officially retired in 1987. Like much of the Northern Rhone, the 70’s and 80’s were tough times, with most of the producers owning small plots of land and dependent on their vegetable and fruit production to subsist. The larger part of their grape production went to Guigal or other large negociants.

Gilbert, however, was committed to making “real” wine. He inherited from his father and grandfather old vines planted with Serine which is the legacy variety or true Syrah before the more productive clones became popular. He did all the work by hand, was one of the first to work organically and was the first in the appellation to be certified organic in 2002.

With the arrival of Guillaume who is now officially in charge, the domaine has grown substantially. Today their are about 11 hectares, 3 bottlings of Côte Rôtie, a delicous Condrieu, plus a more recent project in the Cote Roannaise.

The wines have never been better, and Brigitte and Gilbert can relax and enjoy the fruits of their hard work knowing the next generation is taking the domaine to the next level!