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Walls: Côte-Rôtie 2019 in bottle

Matt Walls revisits the 2019 vintage in Côte-Rôtie now that the wines are in bottle. Despite the extreme heat of the growing season, and some undeniably ripe and alcoholic wines, he finds some truly great bottles.

On 28 June 2019, France recorded its highest ever temperature: 45.9 ̊ C (114.6°F) in Gallargues-le-Montueux, just outside the Costières de Nîmes appellation. Further north in Côte-Rôtie the mercury didn’t reach quite so high, but it was still a season marked by extreme heat.

I was worried that the 2019 Côte-Rôties might resemble the jammy 2003s, a vintage I tend to avoid. Thankfully the vines coped much better this time around, and produced some exciting, exuberant wines – but not all. Some tipped over into excessive ripeness and high alcohol, something that has become even more apparent since bottling. So was 2019 a great year? Not exactly; but it was a year with some great wines.


Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for the 25 top-scoring 2019 Côte-Rôtie in bottle



Matt Walls’ top Côte-Rôtie 2019 wines to try


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