Cote Rotie La Viaillere Rene Rostaing 2016 (750ML)

94 Points, Joe Czerwinski, Robert Parker's Wine Associate: "The 2016 Cote Rotie la Viaillere boasts delicate, almost dainty aromas of flowers, strengthened by stemmy notes and hints of olive and raspberry. It's medium to full-bodied, with a wiry, tannic strength that builds through the concentrated core of the wine and onto the long finish, yet it remains silky around the edges, suggesting reasonably early drinkability." 10/18

95+ Points, John GIlman, View from the Cellar: " The Rostaings' 2016 la Viallière bottling (which has not been produced since a couple of vintages in the mid-1990s) has been graced with the former label of René Rostaing's father-inlaw, Albert Dervieux, who was one of the great figures in Côte-Rôtie during his long and illustrious career. As I mentioned back in my report on my visit to the winery in October of 2017, the domaine now owns more 1.2 hectares of vines in la Viallière, one-third of their vines originating from Albert Dervieux upon his retirement and now more than one hundred years of age. The other two-thirds were purchased by Monsieur Rostaing and replanted in the early 1980s, so are now around thirty-five years of age, but I do not know how much of the production from the younger vines was dedicated to the single vineyard bottling. The Rostaing family's 2016 la Viallière was outstanding out of cask and is equally impressive out of bottle, offering up a deep and youthful bouquet of black raspberries, dark berries, grilled venison, pepper, espresso, complex soil tones and a smoky topnote. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and ripely tannic, with fine soil signature, lovely focus and grip, plenty of depth at the core and a long, youthful and still gently stemmy finish. Again, this is a wine that needs at least fifteen years of bottle age and will not peak until it is at least a quarter century in age, but it is going to be brilliant in due course! 2031-2080." 10/19