2012 Cote Rotie Lieu Dit Montmain
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Tasting notes
Glass-staining ruby. Smoky cherry and dark berries on the deeply perfumed nose. Displays very good depth and power for the vintage, offering plush blueberry and bitter cherry flavors and a kick of peppery spices. Closes sweet and long, with repeating smokiness, youthfully chewy tannins and a lingering note of spicecake.
Critic scores
Average Score
Jancis Robinson MW
Josh Raynolds
More reviews and scores
The 2012 Cote Rotie Lieu Dit Montmain has fleshed out nicely since I tasted in from barrel last year. Forward, ripe, supple and sexy, it has lots of creamy raspberry, blackberry, licorice and spice to go with a medium-bodied, ready-to-go style on the palate. Drink it over the coming 7-8 years.
Brilliant ruby. High-pitched red berry and cherry aromas are complicated by cracked pepper, allspice and fresh flowers. Silky and appealingly sweet, with intense raspberry and violet pastille flavors and a touch of bitter blood orange on the back half. Supple tannins build on the long, incisive finish, which strongly emphasizes the red fruit and pepper notes. There's a pinot-like elegance to this wine, which is made from a schist-based vineyard in the Cote Brune.
Syrah, on mica-based schist. Light bodied and lifted but with some slightly odd sweetness about it too. The sweetness is presumably a 2012 thing. No one could object to this. Fresh, palate-tanning finish. (JR)