Moving to the 2016s and starting with the 2016 Côte Rôtie Ampodium, this beautiful, silky, incredibly elegant wine has classic notes of red and black fruits, spring flowers, hints of bacon fat as well as green olive. Medium-bodied, about as graceful and elegant as they come, with sweet tannins and a great finish, it’s a no-brainer purchase to drink over the coming 10-15 years. I followed this bottle for two days and it does best with a decant if drinking any time soon.

Deep ruby. Expressive aromas of ripe blackberry, boysenberry, licorice and olive paste show very good clarity and pick up a smoky nuance as the wine stretches out. Juicy and energetic on the palate, offering concentrated black and blue fruit flavors complemented by a building floral pastille note. Shows noticeable weight on the broad, gently tannic finish, which echoes the dark berry and licorice notes

I thought the 2016 vintage of the Ampodium bottling from the Rostaing family was exceptional when I tasted it out of cask at the domaine back in October of 2017, and has lost nothing since it was bottled. The wine is young and still a touch reductive when first poured, but with a bit of air the beautiful nose wafts from the glass in a youthfully complex blend of red and black raspberries, hot stones, black olive, roasted game, pepper, a touch of hazelnut, a dollop of chocolate and a smoky topnote. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and nicely nutty and peppery in flavor profile, with a lovely core of fruit, fine focus and grip, ripe, well-integrated tannins and excellent balance on the long and promising finish. The 2016 Ampodium is not going to take all that long to really start to drink well, but this wine also has the balance to age very long and gracefully. What an outstanding vintage chez Rostaing!

There are 20,000 bottles of Rostaing's 2016 Cote Rotie Ampodium, so it is the cuvée most consumers are likely to encounter. It's a fine example of the appellation, offering briary notes of ripe red fruit with spice and herb shadings. It's medium-bodied, silky and fine, with attractive notes of licorice and tea on the finish that give this entry-level wine more complexity than most.