Domaine Stephane Ogier Côte Rotie Champon 2010

We brought this back from visiting Stéphane Ogier in 2013, and have held on to it ever since (it was marked out as a 2010 by chalk on the bottle rather than a label). Opened it on a Saturday night in November with the Ivy shepherds pie (which I think has also made an appearance as an accompaniment in this wines of the year before). Definitely makes me question why I don’t drink more Côte Rotie, with perfect just-bitter-enough liquorice bud, anis and rosemary that lifts things up at the finish. Impossible to resist. At the beginning of its drinking window, going nowhwere any time soon. It’s the hold that it keeps on your palate that is so crazy, does everythng that great Burgundy does in its deceptively delicate structure, and the perfume and crunchiness of fruit, but it has the weight and a kick of a great northern Rhone. No new oak.