2000 GUIGAL La Landonne 2000

(07-2004) Smelling like a raspberry and Port reduction, this manages to let an enormous core of bittersweet chocolate, plum compote, chocolate ganache and exotic spice flavors glide across the palate. Its obvious muscularity strides in on the finish and the flavors echo almost endlessly.

(09-2015) Another wine that's drinking beautifully today is the 2000 Cote Rotie la Landonne. An upfront, perfumed, complex and ready-to-drink beauty, it offers sexy notes of smoked meats, olive, game, truffle and graphite. These give way to a full-bodied, elegant Cote Rotie that has no hard edges, a soft, forward feel and a great finish. It doesn't have the sheer weight of density of a top year, but excels on its drinkability. It's a beautiful wine.

(07-2006) 100% Syrah, clay and calcareous soil, fermented in stainless steel vats, minimum of 4 weeks’ cuvaison, aged in small oak casks for 42 months. Dark crimson. Dumb, though vaguely leathery nose (on both bottles). Some liquorice and definite austerity. This brute doesn’t want to be disturbed…. Really chewy and introvert and muscular.