Côte Rôtie La Turque, Etienne Guigal 2006

The 2006 Cote Rotie La Turque's dark purple/plum hue is similar to La Mouline's, but with slightly more opaqueness. A denser, but seemingly less complex style of wine, it offers notes of animal fat, creme de cassis, charcoal and new saddle leather in its full-bodied, ripe, rich personality. This 2006 will benefit from 2-4 more years of bottle age and drink well for 25-30 years thereafter.

Possessing more acidity and obvious structure than the 2007, the 2006 Cote Rotie La Turque offers ample notes of charred meats, blackcurrants, cassis, saddle leather and spice. Still inky purple in color, with a straight, focused, lengthy style, give this full-bodied beauty another 2-3 years of cellaring and enjoy over the following two decades or more.

Opaque ruby. Expressive, perfumed aromas of red berry and cherry preserves quickly retreated with brief aeration. Deeply concentrated dark fruit flavors slowly reveal notes of spices and candied flowers as well as chewy tannins and a late peppery quality. The finish packs a punch but is pretty undifferentiated right now. It will be interesting to see if the vivacity that this showed last year returns after bottling.

Brilliant crimson and very, very Syrah nose. Marcel suggested it smelt of griottes cherries. This seemed to be tightening up. In Late Oct 2009 it seemed a little bit less luscious than La Mouline but it had a very confident line and direction and good attack.