Côte Rôtie La Landonne, Etienne Guigal 2012

The utterly perfect 2012 Côte Rôtie La Landonne is the star of three single vineyards in 2012. Possessing an off-the-charts sexiness in its layered, concentrated and full-bodied style, it has a wealth of fruit, ripe tannin, a stacked mid-palate and pedal-to-the-metal notes of black fruits, scorched earth, caramelized meats and crushed rocks. While this cuvée normally needs a decade to become drinkable, there’s a sweetness of fruit here that allows it to offer incredible pleasure even today. Nevertheless, give bottles 5-6 years and enjoy over the following three decades.

Spice, treacle, tannins, stems, Wait, wait, wait! Very firm and muscular. Quite cool and very pumped full of mass and energy.

Another massive, thick and unctuously textured beauty is the 2012 Cote Rotie la Landonne. Always the most structured and tannic of the three single vineyard releases, in this case, the wine’s wealth of fruit and texture almost completely hide its tannic grip and underlying structure. Offering sensational notes of cassis, caramelized meats, spice box and crushed rocks, this beauty hits the palate with full-bodied richness, masses of perfectly ripe tannin and a surprisingly sexy, hard to resist profile. Nevertheless, give it 7-8 years in the cellar and enjoy this beauty through 2047.