Côte Rôtie  2016

DOMAINE JAMET

Côte Rôtie
2016

Country
France
Regulated designation
Appellation origine controlée (AOC)
Region
Rhône Valley
Subregion
Northern Rhone
Appellation
Côte Rôtie
Varietal(s)
Syrah
Colour
Red
Producer's website

About this winery

Located high above the town of Ampuis and the Rhône River, Domaine Jamet produces tiny quantities of stunning Côte-Rôtie. The estate was founded in the 1950’s by Joseph Jamet and he began domaine bottling in 1976. In 1991 his son’s Jean-Luc and Jean-Paul took charge of the business slowly acquiring small parcels to expand the estate. Jean-Luc left in 2013 and today Jean-Paul and his wife Corrine run 7 hectares of beautiful vineyards. The estate is spread across 16 different lieux-dits...

See the DOMAINE JAMET detail page for more information on this brand

Product notes

This vintage was produced from twenty separate parcels in Côte Rôtie; soil type being mostly varying types of schist.

Production notes

Whole grape clusters underwent maceration for about three weeks, then the wine was aged for 22 months in French oak barrels (85% old, 15% new).

Tasting notes

This wine is incredibly complex. The nose is full of black pepper, graphite, spice, blueberries and dark chocolate. The palate has firm tannins and is full bodied.

Press reviews

Decanter

- 98 points -

Matt Walls, October 2020 (Vintage 2019)

Jean-Paul Jamet said '2019 gave wines in the style that I like to make'. A step up from the 2018 vintage, the 2019 is more vibrant and intense. A blend of 25 parcels, amounting to 17ha, almost exclusively on schist soils. No destemming. A tasting of nine different barrels across a variety of lieux-dits suggest that the 2019 Côte-Rôtie is very special indeed. This is vibrant and intense, but not as sunny as the 2018 in style - sugars and phenolics progressed at the same gradual rate in 2019, making for a more harmonious and balanced wine. You feel the hot vintage in the wine, but it's represented more as power and intensity than hot alcohol. Vivid and highly impressive.

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Wine Advocate

- 97 points -

September 2015 (Vintage 1999)

One of the all-time greats from this estate is the still inky colored 1999 Cote Rotie. From a hot year that had many vignerons struggling with vinification issues, Jean-Paul compared 1999 to 2009 more than once. Sensationally rich, concentrated and full-bodied, it reveals a classic bouquet of pepper, smoked herbs, black currants and licorice. One sexy Cote Rotie that's just hard to resist, it's drinking perfectly today but will evolve nicely for another decade or more.

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Decanter

- 97 points -

Matt Walls, October 2017

There is no better way to develop an understanding of the different expressions of the single vineyard sites of Côte-Rôtie than by tasting from barrel in Jean-Paul Jamet's underground bunker - especially in a vintage like 2016. 'You smell the terroir first in 2016; in 2015, you smell the vintage first,' he says. Whereas his wonderful 2015 has a lush, easy-going charm, the 2016 is more tailored and precise. Moving from Les Lezards to Gerine, then Fongeant, Le Plomb and La Landonne, each barrel has its own marked character. It's clear that this is an elegant vintage, not hugely powerful but detailed and complex.

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Vinous

- 97 points -

April 2018 (Vintage 2015)

Lurid violet color. Assertive blackberry, licorice pastille, smoky bacon and potpourri scents are complemented by a strong mineral overlay. Seamless and broad in the mouth, offering deeply concentrated black and blue fruit liqueur, cola and floral pastille flavors and a strong jolt of exotic spices. Finishes with repeating mineral, smoke and dark fruit character, with noticeable but well-knit tannins and superb tenacity.

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Tim Atkin MW

- 97 points -

November 2016

10% destemmed in 2015 and 10% new oak. A tasting of various barrels, most containing combinations of different selections of his 20 lieux-dits, mostly on schistous soils. All were strongly characterful and quite different. The overall impression is a juicy, concentrated vintage, expressive not only of the warm year but also of different lieux-dits. The barrel of La Landonne, Côte Blonde and Côte Rozier was particularly impressive, with incredible concentration and energy, mouth-coating tannins; strict yet round, floral and fresh. 2018-2032

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James Suckling

- 97 points -

October 2016

This has fine and spicy crushed-stone aromas with plenty of bright fragrances such as intense florals and dark-chocolate character. The wine is in a good place — it's nice and open with tannins that run even and supple. Really smooth and fresh red-plum and cherry fruits sit alongside blue fruits enveloped by fine tannins. The wine is so silky, velvety and complete. Definitive Côte Rôtie that should be left alone until after 2018, by which time it should have a long window of 15+ years' great drinking.

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Decanter

- 97 points -

Matt Walls, March 2020 (Vintage 2017)

Elegant, perfumed, floral nose. This is generous, fresh and beguilingly complex already. It's dark and brooding but brimming with fruits, spices, flowers, a touch of smoke and graphite with a remarkably mineral, salty finish. Serious, but beautiful.

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Vinous

- 96 points -

September 2019

Deep, lurid purple. Assertive, highly perfumed aromas of fresh blackberry, cherry, Moroccan spices and violet pick up olive and licorice nuances with air. Juicy, energetic and appealingly sweet, offering palate-staining red/blue fruit preserve, spicecake and violet pastille flavors that become deeper as the wine opens up. The floral and mineral notes repeat with gusto on an impressively long, focused finish that features youthfully firm tannins and a touch of bitter chocolate.

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Vinous

- 96 points -

Josh Raynolds, April 2020 (Vintage 2017)

Inky, bright-rimmed ruby. Sexy, mineral-accented aromas of ripe black and blue fruits, candied flowers, olive paste and exotic spices show outstanding clarity and lift. Sweet, pliant and energetic on the palate, offering deeply concentrated raspberry, cherry, cassis and floral pastille flavors that show surprising energy for their heft. A smoky mineral nuance drives the extremely long, youthfully tannic finish, which leaves behind a sexy floral note. All whole clusters.

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Decanter

- 96 points -

October 2020 (Vintage 2018)

Liqueur-fruited, incredibly dense and opulent. The alcohol is quite high and the fruit very dark, underscored by big, slightly blocky and tight tannins. Rich, warming and generous style; very much a solaire vintage.

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James Suckling

- 95 points -

July 2018 (Vintage 2015)

Superb nose with very ripe, complex blackberries, as well as a wealth of black pepper, dark chocolate, graphite and a bold array of spices. Super-fresh with very fragrant, savory complexity. The palate has a bold array of rich, ripe, sweetly fruited tannins. Dark chocolate, licorice and dense spices, too. Very long and composed with deep, black fruit and plum paste. Super long. A blend of 15 different parcels. You barely sense the 15 per cent new oak or the 100 per cent whole-cluster fermentation.

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Vinous

- 94 points -

Josh Raynolds, February 2015 (Vintage 2012)

Deep ruby. Complex, highly perfumed bouquet evokes fresh red and dark berries, incense, violet and cracked pepper, along with a vibrant mineral overtone. Juicy and focused on the palate, offering intense blackberry, bitter cherry and floral pastille flavors that stretch out slowly with air. This concentrated yet lively Côte-Rôtie finishes with superb clarity and even tannins.

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Vinous

- 94 points -

March 2016

Inky ruby. A vibrant spice- and mineral-accented bouquet evokes ripe black raspberry and blueberry, candied flowers, incense and peppery spices. Sweet, palate-staining red and blue fruit compote and violet pastille flavors are complicated by notes of cracked pepper and bitter chocolate, with a spicecake nuance gaining strength in the glass. Velvety, pliant tannins add gentle grip to a strikingly long and incisive finish that strongly repeats the floral and mineral notes.

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Vinous

- 93 points -

January 2001 (Vintage 1999)

Component #1, mostly from 12-year-old vines in Chavaroche: Medium ruby. Musky aromas of black raspberry, coffee grounds, pepper, bacon fat and gunflint. Juicy and peppery, but with modest flesh and depth. #2 (mostly Fontgent): More saturated medium ruby. Riper but inexpressive aromas of chicory, animal fur, mocha and pepper. Denser in the mouth; reasonably fresh yet lacks treble notes. A sample of the same juice from a younger barrique showed more vivacity, with the tannins of the wood giving the wine fresher aromas and firmer shape. #3 (Chavaroche and Moutonne): Bright deep ruby. Aromatic, perfumed aromas of black raspberry, hickory smoke, black licorice and game. Sweet, chewy and bright; a step up in intensity. Perhaps not as dense as the #2, but more expressive today. Strong, palate-staining finish belies the wine high pH. #4 (from browner soils): Bright ruby-purple color. Spicy aromas of black cherry, chocolate, mocha and iron. Dense and dark chocolatey in the mouth, with less fruity high tones than #3. Finishes with big, chewy tannins. This lot will provide much of the structural underpinning of the blend. #5 (Mornachon and Landonne; mostly in barriques since the outset): Full ruby. Rich, briary, Morey-Saint-Denis-like aromas of musky black fruits, bitter chocolate and game. Very closed on entry, but intensely flavored, rich and peppery; dense but sharply delineated. The most complex of these components today. Also the longest on the aftertaste, with the substantial tannins reaching the front teeth. A hypothetical blend of the five components in roughly equal proportion: Bright dark ruby. Very complex and aromatic nose of black raspberry, black cherry, woodsmoke, roast coffee, bitter chocolate and animal fur. Dense, highly concentrated and nuanced, with notes of game, leather and fresh blood. Cote-Rotie in all its rustic glory, which is to say that this wine is downright suave, even elegant. Finishes with firm tannins and terrific lift. Should make a great bottle. The finished wine will be no more than about 13% alcohol, notes Jamet.

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Vinous

95-96

Josh Raynolds, March 2013

Opaque purple. Heady aromas of red and dark berry preserves, potpourri, incense and Asian spices, with a bright mineral accent. Stains the palate with intense black raspberry, blueberry and candied violet flavors and becomes sweeter with air. Rich but lively, with superb finishing clarity, fully integrated tannins and lingering spice and floral notes. This wine's blend of power and finesse is remarkable; it was still in barrel when I tasted it in early November, 2012.

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James Suckling

95-96 POINTS

October 2016 (Vintage 2014)

Plenty of violets, pepper and deep-set spices are all part of the equation here, and this is a very complex Côte Rôtie that has a wealth of darkly stony notes, coal smoke and dark chocolate. Just superb! The palate's succulent and swathed in plush, fine tannins that envelop black- and red-plum flavors. Plenty of volume, great elegance and a lot of detail. A vintage when experienced makers could still shine, and the sorting in the vineyard was clearly a large part of this. Classy wine with so much on offer. Best from 2020 for a decade or more. 

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Vinous

(93-95) POINTS

March 2016 (Vintage 2014)

Brilliant violet. A heady, expansive bouquet evokes black raspberry and mulberry preserves, incense, potpourri and smoky minerals. Concentrated, palate-staining red and dark berry liqueur flavors are energized by vibrant mineral and spice qualities that gain strength with air. Delivers a striking combination of power and finesse, with no rough edges. Closes on a subtle tannic note, with outstanding focus and mineral cut, leaving a juicy red berry note behind.

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Jeb Dunnuck

95-97 Points

December 2019 (Vintage 2018)

I was able to taste numerous barrel samples of the 2018 Côte Rôtie, all rating between 95 and 99 points, which is a good sign! Most barrels were not destemmed and all the samples displayed inky colors, beautiful purity of fruit, classic Jamet style and complexity, and building tannins. Is this a remake of 1999? It has more upfront charm than the Côte Brune, but as with all great vintages of Jamet, 5-7 years of bottle age are rewarded. Domaine Jamet is located high up on the upper plateau above Côte Rôtie, around the village of le Vallin, and Jean-Paul and Corinne Jamet have been farming 25 different plots here, spread across 17 lieux-dits, since 1984. The majority of their holdings are located in the more schist-dominated Côte Brune side of Côte Rôtie (Chavaroche and Le Truchet being the largest) yet they also have prime real estate in Lancement and the Côte Blonde. The winemaking here is traditional yet not dogmatic, and the cellars are clean and impeccably kept. While Jean-Paul likes stems, there are plenty of parcels, and vintages, that see varying degrees of destemming and aging occurs mostly in demi-muids, with 15-30% being new. His Côte Rôties are bottled unfined and unfiltered after two years in barrel. Jamet’s wines represent a quintessential Côte Rôtie and possess incredible aromatics as well as a concentrated, structured style on the palate that rewards 5-7 years of bottle age. Top vintages of Jamet’s Côte Rôtie can evolve positively for 25 to 30 years.

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Vinous

95-96 Points

May 2020 (Vintage 2018)

Precise aromas of dark berry preserves, pungent flowers, pipe tobacco and smoky minerals; allspice and succulent herb nuances build in the glass. Broad, alluringly sweet and youthfully chewy, offering intense blackberry, cherry preserve, fruitcake and bitter chocolate flavors and a sexy candied violet flourish. Shows a compelling interplay of power and energy and finishes youthfully tannic and strikingly long, with lingering floral and mineral notes.

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