Bernard Levet Cote-Rotie "Les Journaries", Cote-Rotie, Rhone Valley, France

An intensely perfumed nose displays mineral-accented black/blue fruit and floral pastille scents that pick up olive paste, bacon and exotic spice notes with air. In a concentrated yet energetic style, offering appealingly sweet cherry, blueberry, licorice, spicecake and candied lavender flavors braced by a spine of juicy acidity. Shows outstanding clarity and mineral thrust on a wonderfully long, floral-accented finish shaped by fine-grained, slow-building tannins. 70% of this fruit comes from La Landonne and the rest is from Côte Blonde. Outside of the US, this bottling is called "Maestria." All whole clusters; raised in mostly neutral demi-muids