Eric Texier 2010 Cote-Rotie!

4/26/12 -

Eric Texier is certainly making some of the finest wines in the Rhône Valley, both in the south and the north. His Chateauneuf-du-Pape, red and white, are outstanding. His work in Brézème and St Julien-en-St Alban has resurrected forgotten vineyards and has produced magnificent wines. His inexpensive Cotes-du-Rhône are wonderfully refreshing and balanced, unencumbered by high-alcohol and gobs of hedonistic fruit. In Cote-Rotie, he is one of the very few producers maintaining the traditions of past growers such as Gentaz-Dervieux, whose wines were known for finesse, purity and aromatic beauty rather than power and concentration. 2010 is a very good vintage for Northern Rhône Syrah, similar to 1991 perhaps, a vintage that produced balanced, medium-bodied wines that have aged beautifully. The opportunity to cellar some of Eric's Cote-Rotie from this vintage should not be missed.

Eric sources the grapes for his Cote-Rotie from several parcels of old vines in the Cote Brune.  Most of the vineyards are terraced and planted in a manner unique to Côte Rôtie - three vines trained on a Guyot system of large stakes making a pyramid like structure called cheys. The soil is a combination of iron mica schist (a metamorphosed shale), decomposed gneiss (a metamorphic banded granite) and arzelle. Wines made from the Côte Brune are generally thought to age much longer than those from Côte Blonde.