- One of the Best Value Syrahs I Sell
- Absurd Levels of Beautiful Juicy Fruit
- A Fass Cult Everyday Syrah
2016 Billon Terres de Vienne VDP "Le Batie"
- As Good As His Cote Rotie Elotins
- Across the River in Vienne
- Gorgeous Floral and Gamey Aromas
- Sappy and Dense with Blackberries and Cherries
- Remarkable Denisty and So Elegant and Refined
I had a wonderful visit with Christoph Billon this past January and tasted through his precise, elegant,
Today I've got one of, if not the best 2016 Northern Rhone value I will offer. The 2016 Christoph Billon IGP "Corendies" for $24.99 a bottle on a 4-pack. I love this wine and have happily sold '12, '13 '14 and '15. The wine is just pure joy. It is on my list of Top 10 IGP wines and is the best value on that list.This is a wine that you can drink as soon as it arrives. Here is a video of me enjoying the 15 recently. I will admit while I did enjoy it, it could use a few more years and I'd rather drink the 2016 now. Any vintage of this wine scratches the itch for a ready to drink, unabashed, joyful, authentic Northern Rhone goodness that bats way above its average. Add some 2016 (I swear it's like 91/14 cross) and you've got a wine to go deep on. Every bottle I've opened has been better than I thought it would be. It does that every time. This is the throw it back Billon bottle but can and will engage your brain while also being delicious. Beautiful, juicy Syrah from the granitic soils of Vienne. Stunning floral red berry fruit that verges towards blackberry with sweet, ripe and wonderful quality tannins. It's intensely sweet but balanced by such freshness and seems more refined than 15 if maybe a bit less fruit. You'd only notice it if you had them side by side and not just a solo bottle as it's just absurdly fruity on its own in any vintage. It's already terrifically complex and so juicy with all that fruit. It's absurd how good this wine is. The fruit is dark and the structure here is epic, velvety and ultra refined but it's all balanced and so pure. There is also a hint of smoke to add complexity. Corendies is so juicy and refreshing with wonderful knock it back acidity. The extra finesse and classicism from 2016 makes this by far one of the best ones I've sold and I've loved every vintage. It is 100% destemmed and aged in 3-4 year old 228 L oak casks for 18-21 months and then bottled. Tasting this wine was a revelation as this gives you the style of Billon but you don't have to wait. Obviously not as complex or deep as the Cote-Rotie but you don't have to wait. I love finding wines like this. A wine of distinction and character for an affordable price. This might have to be allocated as quantity was way down compared to 2016.
Up next I have the 2016 Maryline & Christophe Billon Terres de Vienne VDP "Le Batie" for $39.99 a bottle on a 4-pack. This wine is not some knock back IGP wine. Not at all. I am obsessed with this wine. I think the value cannot be beat as when producers nail this wine it can compete with Côte-Rotie. It's that simple. This is essentially a wine that is from an ancient appellation across the river from Cote Rotie. It's basically Cote Rotie's brother from another mother. The Vienne area has a river and on one side are the Cote Rotie vineyards and the other side is Vienne and there are vineyards there. These wines have their own character that is unique and different than Cote Rotie. More sauvage and animal but just as floral if in a different way. It's great like Cote-Rotie or Hermitage can be because the terroir transposes a unique and special high quality character. In 15 and 16 this wine has elevated to another level and is on the same level of his Côte Rotie Les Elotins but as I've said, completely different in character. A lot of people call a lot of things "baby Cote-Rotie" and this is not that either but some might call it that. I think of it as "another Cote-Rotie" or "Alt Côte-Rotie" as it is similar to Cote-Rotie but just from another place across the river, which is Vienne. This is from a specific site in Vienne that has very hard granite and very poor soils. It's Also 100% destemmed which adds to the early allure of these two Billon cuvees. It is aged the exact same way as the Corendies except it is from a much better (dare I say world class site?) site in Vienne that used to be as good as Cote-Rotie 100+ years ago. This wine is ridiculous. Floral, ripe, gamey, and just plain beautiful aromas that again jump out of the glass. They are so refined, gamey, feral, mineral and so rocky with just a lovely dollop of blackberry fruit but man this is a very rocky site and it really comes through on the nose. The better 2016s are just perfect examples of gloriously elegant and refined Northern Rhone Syrah. A vintage for serious Rhone lovers. It's so classic. So many cherries on the palate with an emphasis on black cherry. Sappy and dense with terrific volume and amplitude and some ripe high-quality tannins but all perfectly balanced. The tannins, I am learning from this site are quite profound and each year they become more fine with 2016 being the finest and most refined yet. Perfectly woven throughout the wine and buffered by profound sweetness of fruit. Just a sap tannin sweetness explosion that is reigned in by the utter refinement of the wine. The palate has this amazingly distinct combo of meaty/feral/floral and ungodly juicy. But there is always something dark and brooding there as well that adds to the appeal. Tangy and complex with a very long finish the Batie really shows amazing palate presence, depth, distinction and complexity for a wine of this price point. Completely and utterly thought- provoking Syrah.
2016 Maryline & Christophe Billon IGP "Les Corendies" - $26.99 ($99.96 4-pack)
2016 Maryline & Christophe Billon IGP Le Batie - $41.99 ($159.96 4-pack)
No comments:
Post a Comment