Yeah, we know. Sometimes we repeat ourselves. But when something is a core value of ours, and has been an important part of our successful, long term acquisition program, it’s worth repeating. We don’t even know how many times we have invoked the “buy little wines from great producers” mantra. We only know that it has worked remarkably well.
Today’s subject is the Cotes-du-Rhone from the delicious 2019 vintage, made by one of the greatest producers of Cote Rotie that you probably never heard of. The vintner is Stephan Ogier, producer of some of the most coveted Cote Roties on the planet. Part of the problem is that he doesn’t make a lot of wine and most folks never see it. We’ve had the good fortune to taste a couple of his master works a few years ago before his wines became virtually ungettable.
In any case, any time we come across something from this talented vintner, we’re interested, and the Stephane Ogier Cotes du Rhone Temps est Venu 2019 definitely got our attention. It is a blend of 60% Grenache, 35% Syrah and 5% Mourvèdre, from Plan de Dieu and Visan, both in the Southern Rhône that is aged in concrete.
The grapes came from vines averaging 30-50 years of age planted in soils of blue clay covered with pebbles. The grapes are harvested by hand and sorted twice, in the vineyard and in the cellar. Then the grapes are whole cluster fermented with natural yeasts.
Joe Czerwinski of Wine Advocate commented, “…it offers attractive scents of garrigue, black cherries and dried spices on the nose, while in the mouth, it’s full-bodied, round and generous. Gently framed by supple tannins and a touch of alcoholic warmth, it hints at cherries jubilee on the finish…89 points.”
We didn’t worry a lot about the score. The man was in a cellarful of potential 100 point Cote Roties so a Cotes du Rhone had a little less of a chance to shine. But here in our chairs we were not so distracted and the texture was clearly more polished than your garden variety Cotes du Rhone, the fruits leaning a little bluer thanks to the higher dose of Syrah. At $18.98, it’s pretty classy juice and about as inexpensive as you’ll find anything from this address.