Domaine Jean-Michel Gérin - Côte-Rôtie La Viallière 2023

The 2023 Côte-Rôtie “La Viaillière,” a cuvée produced since 2009, was aged in demi-muids, with approximately 30% new oak. As is often the case with this producer, it is the most reductive wine in the cellar when young. After aeration, it reveals a floral bouquet of peony and rose. Medium- to full-bodied, it is harmonious, round, and enveloping, centered around a particularly beautiful core of fruit, framed by elegant, finely chiseled tannins. Long and airy, it finishes with notes of black fruit and a slight firmness that should soften with time.

The Jean-Michel Gerin estate was founded in 1983 with the purchase of a vineyard plot in Côte-Rôtie. Jean-Michel comes from a family that has been settled in the region for six generations. The estate’s first vintage was released in 1987, following the incorporation of the family’s vineyards (those of Marcel and Alfred Guerin) into the Jean-Michel Gerin estate. In 1988, the estate carried out its first separate vinification, first from the “Les Grandes Places” vineyard, then in 1996 with grapes from the “La Landonne” plot. The winemaker undertook renovations in the early 1990s; the Jean-Michel Gerin estate was then equipped with a fermentation room and a barrel cellar. The vineyard expanded in 2003, when planting began on the “La Viallière” plot in Côte-Rôtie, on slopes ranging from 40% to 60%. The first vintages were produced in 2009. Michaël and Alexis Gerin later joined the Jean-Michel Gerin estate, which had expanded to about a dozen hectares by the 2010s.