Appellation: Côte Rôtie
Grapes: Syrah, Viognier
Size: 75cl
 
The Rostaing estate dates to 1971 when René Rostaing– a Notary by trade – began tending a few plots of family vineyards. He had the perfect role model to guide him into a career of classical winemaking: Marius Gentaz, his uncle. Over the next few years, René took advantage not only of his uncle’s mentoring, but of historically low vineyard prices, to acquire a prized half acre each in the Côte Blonde and La Landonne lieux-dits. When he married, he acquired a second traditional role model, his father-in-law, Albert Dervieux. Dervieux retired in 1989 and Gentaz followed three years later, giving René a further ten acres of very old vines in some of the appellation’s top sites. This treasury of vineyards launched René’s estate into the stratosphere. The vineyard expansion also enabled René to quit his day job and to devote himself full time to winemaking. Over the next 25+ years, he crafted a sequence of masterful wines that honored the legacy of his illustrious forebearers. In 2015, René’s son, Pierre, took the reins at the estate and he shares his father’s deep reverence for Côte Rôtie’s traditions. 
The estate’s reputation is based solidly on its majestic Côte Rôties. These are wines of intense perfume, and the combination of delicacy and power that comes from no other Syrah. The flagship red, Ampodium is assembled from parcels throughout Côte Rôtie. It is a terrific expression of the appellation, and by itself rivals the appellation’s best. The Rostaing mystique grows further with the prized single-vineyard wines, La Landonne and Côte Blonde. These are extraordinary expressions of two very different terroirs. Landonne is dark and powerful, while Côte Blonde is lithe and explosive; yet both are imbued with the finesse for which Rostaing is famed. 
Finally, with the 2013 vintage, René began to produce a separate bottling from the famed Côte Brune lieu-dit. This site was once the source of Marius Gentaz’s legendary Côte Rôtie Côte Brune but was replanted in the late 1990s because the vines had fallen into poor condition.