Rostaing Côte-Rôtie Côte Brune 2016

100 points Joe Czerwinski (Wine Advocate): "The 2016 Cote Rotie Cote Brune boasts fantastic aromas of violets, tea, herbs, leather, raspberries and olives—the kind of complex aromas that compel multiple nosings. I hesitated to take a sip for fear the spell would be broken, but this wine lives up to that promise. It's medium to full-bodied, but so silky, so effortless to drink, so long, elegant and complex on the finish that I was rendered speechless in the cellar. My original notes include the phrases 'blown away' and 'pretty [expletive] great.' Drink: 2020-2040. (Oct 2018)"

98 points Jeff Leve (The Wine Cellar Insider): "This is going to be impossible to find, as the production is quite small. But it is worth grabbing a bottle if you can find one for all the layers of pure kirsch, cherry and plum that have this fabulous cut and verve, Peppery, powerful yet elegant and regal, this is just great. The wine is made from vines planted in 2003 plant in Ampoudim. Only 75 cases are produced each vintage. Making it even harder to find, the wine is not made in every vintage. As of 2018, the wine has only been produced twice, in 2013 and 2016. (Sep 2018)"

97 points Josh Raynolds (Vinous): "Opaque purple. Powerful, smoke- and spice-tinged black and blue fruit, olive, exotic spice and violet aromas show superb clarity and building mineral character. Deeply concentrated and broad in the mouth, offering alluringly sweet dark berry liqueur, fruitcake, salty olive and floral pastille flavors plus suggestions of licorice and allspice. The wonderfully long, penetrating finish features intense, minerally cut, an echo of sappy blue fruit and chewy tannins that come in late. This is clearly one of the great wines of the vintage. Drink: 2026-2036. (Sep 2019)"

94-97 points Jeb Dunnuck: "There was no 2015 Côte Brune due to the grapes shutting down due to the heat, but the 2016 Côte Rôtie Côte Brune might make up for it, since it appears to be the gem in the vintage. With full-bodied richness, a liqueur of rocks like minerality, stunning notes of black raspberry, cassis, and toasted spice, and a killer finish, this sensational 2016 will need to be forgotten for 5-7 years but will be a 30-year or more wine. (1/24/18)"

96 points John Gilman (View From the Cellar): "I was delighted to see that the Rostaing family decided to use the old Gentaz label for their first release of a single vineyard bottling from the Côte Brune vineyard. As I reported back in February of 2018, the Rostaings now own three quarters of a hectare of vines in this vineyard, with fifty-five ares having come from Messieurs Dervieux and Gentaz when they retired (and all very old vines) and twenty ares having been purchased by René Rostaing in the late 1980s. I loved this wine out of barrel when I was at the domaine towards the end of 2017 and it has captured all of its potential in bottled form, though this is still a very young wine and is properly built for a long life in the cellar before drinking. The bouquet offers up a classic blend of dark berries, black cherries, pepper, a bit of roasted game, plenty of smokiness, a great base of soil, a touch of hazelnut and a hint of violet in the upper register. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, soil-driven and nicely structured, with ripe tannins, a great core of fruit and excellent focus and balance on the very long, very pure and very promising finish. All this needs is time! I would be inclined not to touch a bottle before it has reached its fifteenth birthday, and it will clearly be even better at age twenty-five or thirty! It is a great bottle of Côte-Rôtie in the making and very much worthy of its Gentaz heritage! 2031-2080. (Sep/Oct 2019)"