Côte Rôtie La Landonne, Etienne Guigal 2017

In a completely different style, the more blockbuster, masculine style 2017 Côte Rôtie La Landonne sports a dense purple hue as well as quintessential Landonne notes of smoked meats, black fruits, scorched earth, and chocolate. Pure, focused, and remarkably delineated on the nose, it’s full-bodied and incredibly concentrated on the palate, with building tannins, perfectly integrated oak, and a monster of a finish. It’s going to require at least a decade to be drinkable, but it’s one of those seemingly immortal Côte Rôties that will continue drinking brilliantly for longer than most of us will be around.

The 2017 Cote Rotie La Landonne is 100% whole cluster, yet the stemminess—at the moment—is represented on the nose as just the merest hint of fresh pea shoots. As always, La Landonne is a bastion of strength and power, with dark flavors that range from black cherries and plums to smoke, roasted meat and on into mocha and espresso. Full-bodied and densely concentrated, with a long, long finish, it's the most impressive of Guigal's single-vineyard Cote Roties this vintage. 2025 - 2045

A ripe, sexy nose of smoked game, truffly earth, chocolate, and jammy black and blue fruits emerge from the 2017 Côte Rôtie La Landonne. Made from 100% Syrah from the schist soils of the La Landonne lieu-dit, aged four years in oak, this massive, full-bodied 2017 shows the sexier, riper style of the vintage, yet it has incredible tannins, a deep, layered mid-palate, and nothing out of place. It will be interesting to see if it hits the heights of past great vintages, such as 2015, 2010, 2009, 2005, or 2003, but it’s certainly in the same ballpark.

More marked by pepper and licorice than the 2016, Guigal's 2017 Cote Rotie La Landonne is also richer, rounder and longer. It's full-bodied, velvety in texture and offers a kaleidoscope of dark fruit flavors that gradually morph over the course of an almost never-ending finish. This vintage, La Landonne has it all.