Rostaing
After a successful career as a real estate agent, René Rostaing decided to change course and chose to start making his own wines. This was not an entirely impulsive choice, as his wife is the daughter of Ampuis winemaker Albert Dervieux. His father-in-law assisted him as an advisor in the early years. The vineyard area then consisted of just one hectare. In 1990, Albert retired and transferred his vineyards to René. Three years later, he also inherited some plots from his uncle Marius Gentaz. This grew the wine estate to 20 hectares. Today, his son Pierre is in charge of Domaine Rostaing.
Côte Rôtie and Condrieu are the two main appellations for Rostaing. The plots are maintained organically as much as possible and harvested by hand. Besides syrah, there is also a small plot planted with viognier. This is the Côte Bonnette vineyard.
In the cellar, they use both modern techniques and old traditions. For example, René was one of the first winemakers in the region to work with a vinomatics. This is a horizontal, rotating fermentation tank. In it, the grape bunches are fermented whole. Afterwards, the wines mature in demi-muids and barriques of which up to 15% is new wood. This provides extra body, but without excessive use of wood. The top cuvée is Ampodium, previously called Classique. Ampodium is made from 13 different plots from Côte Rôtie and consists of 100% syrah. The wine is a wonderful example of Côte Rôtie's terroir. Pierre also produces some superb single vineyard wines, including La Landonne, Côte Brune and La Côte Blonde.
Domaine Rostaing has an impressive array of reviews from renowned wine journalists. The vintages that stand out are: 2015, 2016 and 2019. These years are rated with 100 (!) Parker points. They are Côte Rôtie Côte Brune '16 and '19 and Côte Rôtie La Côte Blonde '15.
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