Côte Rôtie “Côteaux de Tupin” AOC 2019

The Côteaux de Tupin is a Côte Rôtie from 100 % Serine. The grape variety was considered almost extinct, but is closely related to the Syrah and the Dureza. Winemaker Stephan found it in a vineyard he was able to acquire in Tupin in 1991, with the oldest plants dating back to 1893. The 0.5 hectares of which the Coteaux de Tupin Some of the vines were planted in 1941, others in 1993. The vines stand on steep slopes on leuco-gneiss. The yield is extremely low, between 15 and 20 hl/ha. The wines are made in the spirit of Jules Chauvet after a cool 24-hour pre-fermentation with a cool carbonic maceration over 20 days and aged for 24 months in used oak barrels sourced from the Jupille forest. The wine was not filtered or fined and only minimally sulphured.

dark purple with violet reflections and black core

The nose of the Côteaux de Tupin provides an impression of the outstanding 2019 vintage very ripe, very intense and immensely fresh. The Côte–Rôtie smells like a basketful of blackberries and black cherries, cassis and sloes, elderberries and figs - all ripe and juicy to bursting. Underpinning the fruit is chocolate and bergamot, liquorice and pepper, roses and lilac with hints of smoked meat, crushed stone and clove.

On the palate, a monument of a Syrah builds up, which definitely needs a lot of air and time. After hours in the carafe, it becomes supple and silky, revealing melt and velvet in combination with notes of cloves, smoke and ammonia pastilles, as well as the dark ripe fruit already mentioned, which brings with it a good deal of extract sweetness, but is also infused with cool acidity, a vibrating minerality, herbaceousness and stoniness. That is very strong!