Wine Advisor
Delas, Cote Rotie La Landonne 2013
View analysis
Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Josh Raynolds
(raised in 40% new oak for 18 months): Inky ruby. Fresh blueberry, cassis, candied flowers and smoky bacon on the intensely perfumed nose, along with a mineral topnote and a hint of allspice. Broad, sappy and concentrated, offering sweet, palate-staining dark fruit and spicecake flavors complemented by hints of anise and bitter chocolate. Finishes sweet, broad and very long, conveying a suggestion of violet pastille; soft tannins come in slowly.
Reviewed by: Josh Raynolds
Dark purple. Heady, mineral-accented aromas of blueberry, cherry-cola, violet and incense, with a smoky note expanding in the glass. Palate-staining black and blue fruit flavors pick up notes of spicecake and candied flowers as the wine opens in the glass. Powerful but lithe and precise, finishing with superb clarity and sneaky tannins that come in late. Claire Darnaud told me that more and more Chassin barrels are being used for this wine because the oak tannins are almost invisible, which works perfectly with the big structure that Landonne always delivers.
Reviewed by: Jeb Dunnuck
More rich, textured and concentrated, the inky color 2013 Côte Rôtie La Landonne should be up there with the top few wines in the vintage. Serious on all accounts, with vibrant notes of smoked earth, liquid rock and a plethora of sweet dark berry fruit, this full-bodied Côte Rôtie has thrilling purity, a seamless, layered texture and blockbuster length. My notes finish with “I hope it shows this well from bottle”.
Reviewed by: Jeb Dunnuck
The 2013 Côte Rôtie la Landonne is a longer term prospect that will require patience. It offers youthful, yet beautifully pure notes of black cherries, roasted herbs, licorice and distinct minerality to go with a medium to full-bodied, structured, tannic yet balanced feel on the palate. Completely destemmed and aged in 40% new French oak, I followed this bottle for multiple days and it continued to gain more and more mid-palate depth, without losing purity or freshness. Give bottles 5-6 years of cellaring and enjoy through 2038.
Reviewed by: James Suckling
This has a very impressive, swirling and aromatic nose of orange zest, fine pepper, gently meaty charcuterie notes, eastern spices and redder berry fruits. Beautifully fragrant. The palate carries impressive density, richness and ripeness, while the tannins are super fine, building neatly and supporting long, chocolate-coated dark plums licorice. Great depth and persistence. Good wine but best from 2018 and thereafter for at least a decade. 100% syrah from the Côte Brune planted on mica-schist soil.
About the Producer
The famous Drass Frère wine company was founded in 1835. Since 1996, the spirit and soul that contributed to the reputation of quality wines has been restored. At present, the Dras brothers have a total of 30 hectares of vineyards, 10 of which are in the Emmettage-Hermitage appellation, 2 in Saint-Joseph and the remaining 18 in Croze-Hermitage. The steep granite hillsides provide favourable growing conditions for the vineyards of the Hermitage appellation, which produces the best quality wines. The grapes are hand-harvested and the fruit is intact and not prone to premature crushing, and in 1996 the estate was renovated by replacing all the old stainless steel fermentation vats with 85 litre concrete vats, and the 2,500 litre old oak barrels were replaced by 600 Burgundy oak barrels. The renovation of the equipment has allowed the winery to separate the fermentation of different batches of grapes, set the fermentation temperature according to the needs of the different varieties, and to monitor them in a targeted manner. The winery uses the gravity artesian method in the vinification process, where the fruit is crushed and poured by gravity into the fermentation vats. After fermentation and pressing, the wine is decanted into oak barrels where malolactic fermentation takes place. The main grape variety is Syrah, but the estate also produces some white wines, mainly made from Marsanne and Viognier. The wines of the Delas Brothers include Domaine des Tourettes, Les Bessards, Seigneur de Maugiron and Francois de Tournon. Francois de Tournon, among others.
