Stephane Ogier La Rosine Syrah 2018

While the boundaries of true Cote Rotie are very tight – less than 800 hectares total – less than a mile or two away, many of the top producers grow world-class Syrah unencumbered by appellation wine laws.

Beginning in the 1990s, top producers began to revive vineyards along the crook in the Rhone River, near the town of Seyssuel, just opposite Cote Rotie. These massive, magnificent wines aren’t part of any appellation, instead much like the Super Tuscans of Italy, the bottles are labeled with the generic IGP designation (They aren’t even allowed to be labeled Cotes du Rhone – though that will be changing soon.)

As of yet, the wines have largely stayed out of the critical limelight – keeping prices modest considering both the producers behind these bottlings and the quality of the wine in the bottle…though this trend is already starting to turn.

Perhaps no one has led the way here more impressively than Stéphane Ogier. While Guigal & Chapoutier rue the day that Stéphane’s father decided to no longer sell them the estate’s fruit and instead bottle them under the family name, much of the wine world rejoiced.

Stephane has become a force in the Rhone and one of France’s brightest young stars. His Côte-Rôties are some of the wine world’s most celebrated collectibles with the single-vineyard bottlings starting at $300/bottle and going up from there. Jeb Dunnuck made a world-wide appeal, calling it “one of the most exciting domaines in the world of wine today” & the multiple 100 point scores have helped as well.