La Route du Vin: Stephane Pichat Cote Rotie cuvees from Very Fine 2006 Vintage

The insanely steep hillside vineyards in Cote Rotie

An "A " for the 2006 Cote Rotie vintage!

"Growers around Cote-Rotie in the far north of the valley were especially happy, as yields returned to normal after the low-yielding 2003 and 2005 seasons, and the wines showed terrific color and length..." A- for the vintage! < The Wine Spectator 2006 Vintage Report

"Most of the 2006 possess intense fruit with fresh acidity, but less powerful tannins than the 2005s. The wines should be drinkable at a much earlier age and because of their intrinsic balance and equilibrium, the top efforts should age beautifully for 10-15 years." The Wine Advocate - Robert Parker

The fruit and intensity of a Burgundy and the age- ability of a Bordeaux. Is this the perfect wine?

Let me say something about Cote Rotie. The first view of the vineyards is unforgettable. Situated at a bend in the river the slopes rise at points 1000 feet vertically from the riverside at a stunning 30 to a nose bleed 55 degree angle. This stunning wall of vines looks impossible to cultivate. It is for any method except laborious hand labor. No tractor or even horse and cart could work these slopes. They are just too steep.

All challenges have their rewards and the Cote Rotie's is a perfect southern exposure. This combines with a clay limestone soil and a rocky large stone surface that soaks up the hot southern sun all day and radiates heat back onto the precious vines of the "Roasted Slope" all evening. This makes for fabulous ripening conditions and intense concentrated fruit from those precarious hillside vines.

The area is small. The entire Cote Rotie appellation is only 321 acres. Mouton Rothschild in Bordeaux alone is 185 acres and there are many larger estates in the Medoc. Cote Rotie in total only produces 80,000 cases annually. Individual growers typically only have 2 to 4 acres of production to which they devote a huge amount of personal attention. The results are worth it. One sip is enough to understand why they do it.

At a tasting in Ampuis, the capital of Cote Rotie (there is no village named for the wine), I met a young grower named Stephane Pichat who had just produced his first vintage. His 2000 was a triumph but the quantity was minuscule - only 900 bottles produced . I was able to snap up a very small quantity - ten (six bottle) cases.

When I got home the annual La Revue du Vin de France (the definitive French wine journal) arrived with the first press on the new grower. They awarded Stephane their "Coup de Coeur 2002" award for the Cote Rotie wines they tasted. Coup de Coeur is a bit hard to translate but essentially means "closest to my heart"

Stephane is just the sort of person you want to make friends with in Cote Rotie - deadly serious about his winemaking with prices lagging far behind his talent. With a bottle of Cote Rotie going for $75-$150 these days (and those aren't even the fancy ones like La Mouline ). Those are going for $500 a bottle - yes, that is 5 with a capital 5!). Stephane is definitely a breath of fresh air.

Stephane makes a couple of Cote Roties: Le Champon and Les Grandes Places (extremely limited). Both Le Champon and Les Grandes Places come from granite/schist soil. They are both aged in new oak - the Champon is raised in 70% new oak and the Grandes Places is raised in 100% new oak and aged in barrel for two years.

Both wines are seriously rich with fabulous concentration and balance. Stephane says you can start to drink Les Grandes Places about 4 years from the harvest, but adds you will be rewarded if you keep it for ten years. Le Champon will be ready earlier, but it is no light-weight wine. Think about a mixed case if you're the impatient type.

I think everybody should experience Cote Rotie; it's one of the world's most exalted wines and with Pichat holding his prices down (at least for the moment), it is still an affordable great wine experience. Cynthia Hurley