2017 | Domaine Christophe Billon | Cote Rotie Les Elotins

Saturated ruby. A highly perfumed bouquet evokes ripe black and blue fruits, licorice, olive and succulent flowers, along with mineral and spice accents that build in the glass. Sweet and broad in the mouth, offering juicy boysenberry, candied plum and spicecake favors and a touch of smokiness. Velvety tannins lend gentle grip to a long, spicy finish that leaves smoky mineral and blue fruit notes behind.

Reviews:

• Wine Enthusiast: Whispers of fur, charcuterie and smoke lend savory complexity to luminous cassis and mulberry flavors here. A blend of 97% Syrah and 3% Viognier sourced from schist and mica slopes, it's boasts a gleaming acidic spine and fresh, mineral undertone that are revitalizing. Rich, chewy tannins should meld with time and while appealing already, it's a wine that should peak from 2021–2030 hold further still.

• Jeb Dunnuck: While the entry level cuvée, the 2017 Côte Rôtie Les Elotins is a powerhouse of a Côte Rôtie that knocks it out of the park. Offering a deep purple color as well as a blockbuster nose of black fruits, charred meats, graphite, and chocolate, it hits the palate with full-bodied richness, a dense, powerful mid-palate, and a great finish. It's not for those looking for ethereal, nuanced Côte Rôtie, but it's nevertheless a brilliant wine. This cuvée incorporates 3% Viognier and spent 22 months in once- and twice-used barrels.

Producer Information

At the very top of the hill overlooking the northern Rhône town of Ampuis, you’ll find the humble yet rising-star estate of Christophe Billon. Since 1991, Christophe has crafted honest, authentic Syrah wines from the steep, terraced slopes of Côte-Rôtie. His family’s roots here go back generations; the family’s oldest parcel of vines can trace its origins back to the end of the second world war. Truly a working winemaker, Christophe for years balanced the demands of his job at Guigal with his own domaine, finally dedicating himself completely to the family project in 2007. His son, Corentin, after finishing his wine studies in 2015, now works at his father’s side. The family crafts four Côte-Rôtie cuvées, each generously structured and stunningly pure, and each a faithful representation of the power and purity of these “roasted slopes.” Found on the ‘Brune’ side of Ampuis, the family’s ‘Côte Rozier’ and ‘La Brocarde’ cuvées are classic Syrah wines, structured and stately, made for the long haul. ‘Rozier,’ neighboring the legendary plot ‘La Landonne,’ claims the estate’s oldest vines, planted by Christophe’s grandfather, Xavier. ‘La Brocarde,’ next to the classic ‘Côte Brune’ vineyard, delivers a more extroverted cuvée, with heady minerals, bright red fruit and refined tannins. A new addition to the portfolio, ‘La Vialliere’ is also ‘Brune’ but gives a more floral, refined Syrah wine, perhaps a nod to its cooler perch at the very top of the slope. The family combines the harvest of four separate parcels for ‘Les Elotins,’ a delightfully fruited and balanced Côte-Rôtie wine. Here the intensity of classic ‘Brune’ soils is married with a floral nuance, characteristic of the ‘Blonde’ side of Côte-Rôtie – the best of all worlds.

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