Two Wines from the Shifu of Côte-Rôtie: Old School, Brilliant, No Bluster, No Marketing

 No Press, no Pundits, No Care

 - Making Brilliant Wines for Decades

 - A "Winemaker's Winemaker"

 - A Favorite of the Greek (Even Though We Buy Direct)

 - Just Churns Out Amazing Wines Year After Year After Year

2019 Maryline & Christophe Billon Côte Rotie "La Brocarde"

 - 95-97 Points, Jeb Dunnuck

 - Psychotic Nose: Floral, So complex. 

 - So Many Deep Intoxicating Aromas

 - Huge Granite

 - Big Florals, Deep Violets, Lilacs

 - Spice, Smoke and Cassis

 - Palate: Concentrated, Velvety Blackberry Fruit 

 - Tiny Berry Fruit Complexity

 - Dazzling Purity

2019 Maryline & Christophe Billon Côte-Rotie "La Cote Rozier"

 - 94-96 Points Jeb Dunnuck

 - Nose: Mega Berry, Big Mint and Cooling and Crispy Fruit

 - Palate: Amazing Tiny Berries, Terrific Concentration

 - Off the Charts Purity

 - World Beating Inner Mouth Aromatics

I've never had a bottle of wine from him that was anything but great. In any vintage. In any vineyard. With any grape.

Viognier. Basic Cote Rotie. Single Vineyard Rote Rotie. Condrieu. IGP. They're all great. Great, great, great, great great.

The man has the most basic labels I've ever seen. He could give a fig about the press. Or recognition. He just goes about his business every day making great wine.

Below are the Jeb scores for each wine.

2019 Billon Cote Rotie La Brocarde - 95-97 Pts, Jeb Dunnuck

2018 Billon Cote Rotie La Brocarde - 94-97 Pts, Jeb Dunnuck

2017 Billon Cote Rotie La Brocarde - 96 Pts, Jeb Dunnuck

2016 Billon Cote Rotie La Brocarde - 94-96 Pts, Jeb Dunnuck

2019 Billon Cote Rotie Cote Rozier - 94-96 Pts, Jeb Dunnuck

2018 Billon Cote Rotie Cote Rozier - 94-96 Pts, Jeb Dunnuck

2018 Billon Cote Rotie Cote Rozier - 94+ Pts, Jeb Dunnuck

2016 Billon Cote Rotie Cote Rozier - 94-96 Pts, Jeb Dunnuck

Oh, and Shifu is a Japanese word for expert/master.

The Wines

Up first is my personal favorite of the two single vineyard Billon Cote Roties. The 2019 Maryline & Christophe Billon Côte Rotie "La Brocarde" which is also $72.99 a bottle on a 3-pack. Maybe 5-8 years. It is extraordinary and profound Côte Rotie of the highest degree but man does this wine need time. 

So many deep intoxicating aromas I don't know where to begin. Mint, leather, amalgam of
berries with so many flowers. My god this wine is floral. There is an engaging lilac/violet and even dandelion thing going on. It is just insane floral as Brocarde I always think is one of the most floral Côte Roties out there. It's intoxicating. Smoke and cassis eventually with air. It's just crazy.  The nose on this wine is absolutely psychotic. Floral and so complex. Classic Brocarde. So smoky (mesquite?), floral and feral. So mineral and full of deep mineralogy like iron and things of that nature. It is so sick, so complex, so nuanced and really is more of a floral/spice thing versus the fruit of the Rozier. The fruit there is blue and cooling. 

On the palate, the fruit is incredibly concentrated - it's almost alive in the mouth. It's so velvety. Each sip is an experience and it has energy and freshness like nothing else. The energy and freshness in all of the 2018 Côte Rotie is like nothing else. Just incredible. Because with the nuclear levels of fruit one needs energy and freshness which raises the complexity level. I cannot get over the texture of this wine. The tannins are so high class and really really refined. The tannins in La Brocarde are remarkable. They spread so evenly across the palate. So sweet, so juicy. Sweet velvety blackberry fruit gushes on your palate like an oil geyser with a terrific finish that does not quit. It is so s delineated and dazzlingly pure. Big blackberry fruit that just explodes in your mouth. It's so sweet and floral. Terrific long finish that is actually legitimately amazing. There is so much tiny berry fruit complexity and it saps down on the the finish. It's masterpiece and a work of art.

"For lovers of powerful, massive Côte Rôtie, the 2019 Côte Rôtie La Brocarde from Billon is going to punch that ticket. Decadent black fruits, scorched earth, roasted meats, and spicy nuances all define this beauty, and it's full-bodied, with a decadent, layered texture, one heck of a great mid-palate, and the density, structure, and balance to benefit from 7-8 years of bottle age and evolve for 20-30 years.."- 95-97 points, Jeb Dunnuck (2018)

Next up is the 2019 Maryline & Christophe Billon Côte-Rotie "La Cote Rozier" for $69.99 a bottle on a 3-pack. While the Brocarde is the more sexy, elegant, early approachable wine if one wants, the Rozier is a big sexy beast. But even being big and rich it is never heavy as a Côte Rotie is a wine of finesse over all other things. This is an epic epic bottle of Côte Rotie.  

The nose is unreal. A hint of wood and huge mega berry, big mint and cooling and crispy fruit. So floral and just so so aromatic as only Côte Rotie from a great site can be. It really flew out of the glass.

The palate is epically juicy and impossibly complex with wonderful inner mouth florality. The energy on the palate is just insane. It's a total force of nature wine. It's meaty, gamey and so floral with amazing concentration and depth of fruit. So delicious with amazing fruit that is so so fresh and with excellent acids that give this wine incredible lift. Not as big as the 2018 but man this is an incredible wine in its own right. The fruit is so unique and so brilliant in Rozier. It's black cherries and blackberries. Incredible inner mouth florals and sick energy. This provides a counterpoint or platter for all the full bodied rich fruit. It's so amazing as this is richer than Brocarde and yet it never comes across as heavy and it is downright elegant. The tiny berry fruit complexity is off the charts as is the stunning purity. The wood use of Billon is brilliant and he is like a great chef using salt. The finish is so so long and just epic. The wine is so refined and also a bruiser when I tasted it but this will get so much better. Brilliant wine. It's a contemplative wine in a way. But it's also a wine for the cellar. Below is Jeb Dunnuck's 94-96 point review for the 2018. 

"The 2019 Côte Rôtie Côte Rozier is also concentrated and rich, yet it has a more lifted, elegant, fresher style in its plum and flowery, peppery incense aromatics, medium to full body, building tannins, and great finish. It doesn't have the sheer wealth of fruit to buffer its structure like the La Brocarde and needs at least 4-5 years in the cellar to round into form. It's impressive, nevertheless." - 94-96 points, Jeb Dunnuck

2019 Maryline & Christophe Billon Côte Rotie "La Brocarde" - $74.99

($218.97 3-Pack) 



2019 Maryline & Christophe Billon Côte Rotie "Rozier" - $71.99

($209.97 3-Pack)