Côte Rôtie Brune et Blonde, Etienne Guigal 2019

The 2019 Côte-Rôtie “Brune et Blonde” bottling from Maison E. Guigal is an excellent young wine. The cépages this year is ninety-six percent syrah and four percent viognier, with the wine aged for three years in small oak barrels. Fifty percent of the casks are new. The wine comes in at fourteen percent octane in 2019 and offers up a superb bouquet of red and black raspberries, smoked meats, a touch of hazelnut, pepper, a beautiful base of soil tones, woodsmoke and gently spicy oak. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and beautifully soil-driven in personality, with a fine core of fruit, lovely focus and grip, fine-grained tannins and a long, complex and seamlessly balanced finish. This is one of the best vintages of Brune et Blonde that I have tasted from the Guigal family in several years! Drink between 2035-2075.