Investment Grade

wines

Utter perfection, the 2005 Cote Rotie La Landonne exhibits a similar scorched earth/burning ember and bacon fat-scented nose as well as copious quantities of black fruits, truffles, and forest floor. Incredibly dense and masculine with unreal levels of concentration, and beautifully integrated tannin, acidity, and oak, this remarkable 2005 may turn out to be the longest-lived La Landonne since the debut vintage of 1978 (which is still going strong). Cellar this cuvee for 5-6 years, and consume it over the following 35+ years.Robert Parker | 100 RPStill tight, with a wall of mocha and raspberry ganache covering the massive core of fig fruit, hoisin sauce and plum cake notes. This is extremely dense but remarkably polished, with a long, tongue-penetrating finish that drips of fruit and spice laid over massive grip. Best from 2012 through 2034. 1,000 cases made.Wine Spectator | 99 WSOpaque purple. Highly expressive, exotic bouquet of blueberry, boysenberry, violet face powder, Indian spices and smoky minerals. Deeply concentrated but almost shockingly vibrant, offering palate-coating dark berry and cherry liqueur flavors and notes of floral pastilles and minerals. The finish doesn't want to let up and eventually leaves notes of flowers and smoky spices behind. This glyceral, potent wine is destined for a long life, and it would be a crime to open it any time soon.Vinous Media | 97 VM

Doing everything right and one of the best young wines I’ve ever tasted, the 2005 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie La Mouline offers extraordinarily complex and nuanced aromatics of smoked bacon, chocolate, toast, and hints of flowers that are integrated perfectly with the deep raspberry and blackberry fruit profile that only Côte-Rôtie can deliver. Full bodied, dense, concentrated, and seamless on the palate, with a gorgeously suave and silky texture, perfect balance, and ultra fine tannin structure. Despite the structure here, this maintains a subtle elegance and weightlessness that is nothing short of captivating. An awesome wine, I would cellar bottles for a decade, and then drink over the following 20 or so years.Jeb Dunnuck | 100 JDSimilar to the powerful 1988, the inky/purple-colored, dense 2005 Cote Rotie La Mouline offers a stunning perfume of espresso roast, licorice, pepper, blackberries, and black cherries intermixed with hints of chocolate and spring flowers. Powerful, super-concentrated, and ruggedly-constructed with a boatload of tannin, this is a wine to forget for 4-5 years, and drink over the following 25-30. It is the densest, most tannic vintage of La Mouline since 1988.Robert Parker | 100 RPExtremely dense, with Turkish coffee and bittersweet cocoa notes leading the way for a huge core of macerated plum and currant fruit, with warm fig reduction and hoisin sauce notes. The long, graphite- and toast-driven finish sails on and on. Best from 2012 through 2030. 415 cases made.Wine Spectator | 99 WSVivid ruby. Sexy black raspberry and floral aromas are complicated by smoky minerals, Asian spices and a whiff of smoke. Silky, alluringly sweet red and dark berry flavors pack serious punch but come off as weightless, with tangy minerality adding spine and precision. Showing more elegance than last year: its finishing lift, clarity and sweetness comes across as distinctly Burgundian. This suave wine is surprisingly open-knit but I'd wait a while before opening a bottle.Vinous Media | 96 VM