Côte-Rôtie: Unplugged
2005 Éric Texier Côte-Rôtie "Vieilles Vignes"
Rare Buying Opportunity - 15% Below Lowest Price
Côte-Rôtie is challenging.
The slopes are steep and treacherous (the parcels Éric Texier farms have inclines up to 55 degrees). This is unforgiving land; everything must be done by hand.
Some of this severity translates into the wines themselves, which can be impartial, unrevealing, even temperamental. Yet when they choose to show themselves, Côte-Rôtie can be absolutely haunting.
In Éric Texier's hands, Côte-Rôtie is elegant. (John Gilman uses the word "classy," see his very enthusiastic note below.)
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Today, we offer his rare old-vine Côte-Rôtie at a serious discount - as low as 15% below the lowest price out there. (This special price is good on this parcel only.)
While Syrah can be a brooding, hefty wine, there is an undeniable femininity to traditional Côte-Rôtie - a mountain field of perfumed wild flowers mixing it up with the more brutal side of Syrah, the smoke and charred grasses, black olives and meat.
And this is where Éric Texier, especially, excels; he has simply mastered the textural elegance of Syrah, allowing its sinewy muscle to show all satin. Taster after taster (after taster) comments on the obvious similarity between Texier's Côte-Rôtie and fine Burgundy.
Even with a few years in bottle, Texier's 2005 old-vine Côte-Rôtie is still incredibly young - taut and coiled up. We enjoyed it at the store yesterday for well over an hour before the tell-tale chorus of violets and roses began to emerge (though when it finally did, wow!). The fruit is fresh, a mix of red and black berry, a diverse expression of soil, mineral, iron ore, black olives and meat.
If you employ this wine as a dinner companion this winter, we'd recommend a big decant and a serious, hearty stew. That said, this wine is only beginning to enter "the zone" - it will only improve for the next 5+ years.
Éric Texier has quickly become one of the Rhône's most talked about producers. His wines, across the board, show a surprising seriousness - even his basic Côtes du Rhône (to say nothing of the aromatic Brézème) shows a clear, detailed expression - again, that elegance and clarity. While the winemaking is thorough and traditional (indigenous yeasts, open-topped fermentors), the focus is in the vineyard. Éric believes, strongly, that this is where the wine is made.
We do not have much of this Côte-Rôtie; one small parcel only at this price. For those of you who want to stock up on a *seriously* beautiful expression of Syrah from the Northern Rhône - something to get you through the winter (and many winters ahead), you're unlikely to see better pricing.
There is no elaborate story here, no drama behind the discount. We simply pulled the trigger fastest when the importer offered out a small parcel of this wine at the lowest pricing. And we got it.
So today we pass the savings on to you. Please order by emailing us at offers@crushwineco.com or calling the store at (212) 980-9463.
Ian McFadden
Director of Fine & Rare Wine Department
Crush Wine & Spirits
Special Email Price: $58.86
Compare at up to $70
Special Email 4-Pack Price: $221.00 ($55.25/btl)
John Gilman, View from the Cellar: "I first tasted the fine Texier 2005 Côte-Rôtie while the wine was still in barrel back in November of 2006, and it has been fascinating to follow its evolution ever since. It was aged in five year-old Burgundy barrels, and yet even in five year-old wood it seemed to show a touch of vanillin from the oak prior to its bottling. However, two years on there remains no signs of oak and the wine is evolving beautifully. The bouquet remains still quite young and primary, but impressively complex in its blend of cassis, grilled meats, coffee, herb tones and a great base of Côte Brune soil. On the palate the wine is medium-full, long and classy, with a fine core of fruit, impressive intensity of flavor, ripe tannins, sound acids and great length and grip on the currently quite imploded finish. I would bury this very young bottle of Côte-Rôtie for at least another six to eight years, and then drink it with wild abandon over the ensuing couple of decades. It is a very classy example of Côte-Rôtie." (Note from 11/2008)
Texier is in stock!
NET | No further discounts