God Bless the Danes - Last Minute Cancellation Gets Us a Small Parcel of This Super Allocated Wine
The
magnitude of this wine is such that it is difficult to describe within
the bounds of acceptable speech; I was absolutely going crazy when I
drank it.
The concentration is off the charts.
The internal mouth aromas are crazor.
This has the longest finish of any wine I've sold at Fass Selections.
It has classic, structured Cote Rotie meaty and gamey notes. The color is as dark as blood.
Despite the stunning magnitude of the flavor profile of this wine, it is incredibly pure, balanced and simply wonderful. A masterpiece of classical winemaking that is meant for ageing.
Honestly, I am stunned
that a wine of this quality was still available but a Danish importer
cancelled on Christophe and the Danes loss is our gain. Frankly, I
can't believe that Billon has no US importer but I guess that the small
quantities make him less than ideal for a traditional importer. I'm
thrilled to offer the 2010 Christophe Billon Cote Rotie "La Brocarde" for as little as $59.99 on the 4 pack.
This is not your regular
$40-$60 bottle of Cote Rotie. This is a deluxe single vineyard cuvee.
Think of a hard core cote style rotie that needs years or decades of aging. Compare in price to Jamet Cote Brune at $300+. La Brocarde is right next to the Côte Brune, one of the most famous vineyards in Côte Rotie. The winemaker, Christophe Billon, worked at Guigal and knew that la Brocarde had perfect soil and exposure.
How good is Billon
as a winemaker? Georges Lelektsoglou runs Compagnie de l'Hermitage,
the most important wine retailer in the Northern Rhone. Ask any
winemaker and they'll tell you to visit him; he's the godfather of
Northern Rhone wine retail and incredibly well respected by all of the winemakers. He calls Billon one of the elite winemakers of the Northern Rhone. In fact, Billon is the winemaker that George selected to make his own bottling of Cote Rotie that he sells under his own name. John Livingstone Learmouth, arguably the world's foremost Rhone wine critic, is a big fan of Billon as well.
This is the bottling
meant for long ageing - the Les Elotins is meant for earlier drinking. I
drank a bottle of the Brocarde over 3 days. It took a day to calm down
and integrate and then it was absolutely glorious.
I met with the charming
Christophe and his wife on my first morning in Tain. He and his wife
are incredibly humble and sweet. Christophe did not take the easy route
to being a winemaker. His grandfather grew fruits and vegetables on a
0.17 hectare plot on Cote Rozier. Christophe took over his father's
vineyard in 1986, planted half an acre and rented out the rest. It took
10 years of painstaking work to plant the half a hectare. He started
bottling his own wine in 1991. Until 2007, he was working 2 jobs; one at
his own winery and the other growing grapes for Guigal. Billon is a
very serious, hardworking fellow whose wines are starting to get
international recognition. I was lucky to secure this small allocation.
Regarding
Shipping: We are organizing shipping of wines purchased to date and they
will be available in the spring shipping season.
If
I could please ask you to hit reply and send me your billing and
shipping addresses along with your order if you are a first time
customer. My phone number is 917-912-4355 and you can reach me to give
me your CC #'s (we prefer not to receive credit card numbers over
E-Mail).
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A Word about Fass Selections and Social Media
I
am big into social media and I want people to take pictures of the
wines they have received or will recieve and tag me in them and share
their thoughts. My twitter accounts are @grapeylyle and @FassSelections. Tweet at me your thoughts. Use the hashtag #FassSelections. I am also on Facebook. My personal page and my Fass Selections page can be accessed here. Like the Fass Selections page if you have not. I am also way big on Instagram.
You may not want to follow me as I post 2/3 sneaker pics and 1/3 wine
and everything else pics. Please tag me there as well. I also just
started using Delectable, which I love a lot. It is Iphone/Ipad only,
but it's like Instagram meets Facebook for wine. Tag me there and find
me there as well. I want to know if you liked the wine, were not moved
by the wine, hated the wine or the wine gave you a religious experience.
I want to know it all. Feedback is key and I will answer all feedback
e-mails as quickly as I can.
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2010 Christophe Billon Cote Rotie "la Brocarde" - $64.99
($239.96 4-pack) (LIMITED)
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