One of the legendary vintages for this cuvée is the 2017 Côte Rôtie La Turque, a blend of 93% Syrah and 7% Viognier from a tiny parcel in the Côte Brune lieu-dit. Always aged 4 years in new French oak, it offers a dense, saturated purple color as well as slightly more masculine notes of blackberries, smoked meats, dark chocolate, and graphite. Full-bodied, beautifully concentrated, and perfectly balanced, with incredible purity of fruit, it already offers pleasure but will ideally be given 5-7 years of bottle age. It will deliver the goods for 30 to 40 years. It’s the star of the show in 2017 and one of the wines of the vintage.

Wonderfully perfumed and floral, the 2017 Cote Rotie La Turque was singing at full voice when I tasted it. The marvelous blueberry and raspberry fruit is broad and expansive on the full-bodied palate without being heavy or overly rich, perfectly framed by soft, dusty tannins on a lingering finish. It will be fascinating to follow this wine and compare it over the decades to the 2015 and 2018.

La Turque is situated on a central part of Côte Brune, occupying less than 1ha, and was planted by Marcel Guigal in 1980 (first vintage in 1985) after having been abandoned since 1935. They claim the mica schist and iron oxide in the soil contribute to the strong tannins compared to La Mouline. This has intense fruit of searching depth - a deep cave of a wine - with incense, star anise and dried rose all echoing. Lashings of toasty oak spice appear on the finish, which is extremely long and resonant. The extraction is pushed as far as it can reasonably go, but the wine is well balanced with a firm beam of acidity, considerable internal sweetness of fruit, and a thick mass of ripe tannin. It will live longer than La Mouline, but not as long as La Landonne. Drinking Window 2027 - 2039.

Very alluring, with silky waves of cherry puree and mulled plum fruit gliding through, infused gently with red tea, savory and sweet tapenade hints. Lingering minerality carries the finish, which has structure and grip to merit cellaring, though the fruit is so hard to resist. Best from 2023 through 2038. 220 cases made, 60 cases imported.

Expansive aromas of black raspberry, cherry and boysenberry, with exotic spice, floral oil and incense notes building in the glass. Energetic and focused on the palate, offering densely packed black/blue fruit liqueur flavors, along with intense violet pastille and cracked pepper notes. The floral quality builds steadily with air and carries through a very long, chewy finish that features resonating blue fruit and floral notes and youthfully gripping tannins.