La Mouline Côte-Rôtie Syrah

Opened prior to dinner and enjoyed over the course of a few hours. The wine pours a deep ruby/purple color with an opaque core; medium+ viscosity with significant staining of the tears. On the nose, the wine is developing with notes of ripe and desiccated black and red fruits: mixed brambles, Flintstone vitamins, spiced meat, olives, purple flowers, black pepper, dried herbs, rocky earth, a mix of cool and warm spices. On the palate, the wine is dry with medium+ tannin and medium+ acid. Confirming the notes from the nose. The finish is long. Similar to the 1997 we tasted alongside, with all of the same notes except this brought back the familiar Flintstone vitamins that I have encountered in La Mouline from the past. The structure was also more substantial. I preferred this to the 1997 tonight…but I’m splitting hairs!

Opened prior to dinner and enjoyed over the course of a few hours. The 1997 La Mouline pours a deep ruby/purple color with a slightly hazy, near opaque core; medium+ viscosity with significant staining of the tears. On the nose, the wine is vinous with notes of ripe and desiccated black and red fruits: mixed brambles, black cherry, spiced meat, olives, purple flowers, black pepper, dried herbs, rocky earth, a mix of cool and warm spices. On the palate, the wine is dry with medium tannin and medium acid. Confirming the notes from the nose. The finish is long. Powerful and modern. Lots of energy left. Drink now through 2042.

Always the most elegant and perfumed and even Burgundian of the La La’s, 06 is gorgeous tonight, open and giving with the oak seamlessly absorbed, wafting layers of cassis, bacon fat, camphor and exotic spices with silky palate and tremendous length. Still young but quite accessible now!

Gorgeous black fruit. Smokey and minerality. Needs time to develop in the glass.

Wow. Intense and pure in the nose. A hint of tang with an amazing fresh core given the age. Dark tang fruit with underbrush and mineral/ iron/ iodine notes. Pure and delicious. A great bottle.

Intense dark fruit with a bright hit of acidity. Very clear and pure. Iron, Salinity, a hint of sweetness. Expressive and complex. Still young

Pure and resolved. Great fruit- rounded with blood, dried herbs, plum, tangy black cherry. Some stone, saddle leather. Very good.

gorgeous. Lovely deep and bright fruit. Fresh and defined. Some shrill light acidity and great length.

Believe it or not, this is my first La-La and what a way to do it with a 1994 no less! Flintstone vitamins, gym socks, pomegranate, purple flowers, minerals like crazy…and what seemed like an impenetrable wall of granite. Tons of baking spices. Modern? Yeah of course but my goodness the quality is indisputable and this worked really well with Iberico pork cheek, mushroom ragu with lavender and thyme. The reality is, even at 30 years old, this is youthful. Drink now through, I dunno, 2044?

A bottle I contributed during a trip to Napa’s Premiere Napa Valley week. This was opened at Torc, alongside a ‘97 Leflaive Les Pucelles, ‘11 Leroy Blagny, ‘89 La Chappelle and two young Napa cabs from Simon Estate. La Mouline is always my favorite due to the amount of co-ferment with Viognier.

Deserving of a 1-2hr decant, this got about an hour open in bottle by the time we got to it. I opened the ‘04 La Turque just a few weeks prior, so I had a reference point to work with. Heady aromatics, as expected…dark potpurri, spice, mesquite and mocha. On the palate, the youthful bacon-fat of Cote Rotie was gone and had channeled the classical tangy barbecue profile alongside black olive, peppered red and black berry fruit, and smoked meat at the finish. Whereas the LaTurque was almost Burgundian in profile (elegant, light), this was somewhere in-between the “bigger” LaLandonne and LaTurque…big, but balanced, likely due to vintage. Aromatics and finish here were standouts. Open now with a quick decant or hold another few years.