No Press, no Pundits, No Care
– Making Brilliant Wines for Decades
– A “Winemaker’s Winemaker”
– A Favorite of the Greek (Even Though We Buy Direct)
– Just Churns Out Amazing Wines Year After Year After Year
– He Took “The Leap” In 2020 and Is Now Super Elite
– The La Brocarde Reminds me of Jasmin’s Cote Rotie “Olea” Now ($95+)
2021 Maryline & Christophe Billon Côte Rotie “La Brocarde”
– 94-96 Points, Jeb Dunnuck (2020)
– Starting in 2020, This Wine is Approachable Young
– Psychotic Nose: Floral, So complex.
– So Many Deep Intoxicating Aromas
– Huge Granite
– Big Florals, Deep Violets, Lilacs
– Spice, Smoke and Cassis
– Palate: So Concentrated
– Velvety Blackberry Fruit
– Tiny Berry Fruit Complexity
– Dazzling Purity
These are insider wines but they are only insider wines because they are from a known producer of ours but most people are focused on his high end cuvees. If everyone knew about these wines, everyone on the list would buy it. And buy a lot. The 2010 Christoph Billon Cote Rotie La Brocarde was the first high end Rhone wine we ever sold and we have sold every vintage since. The wine is very special to me because of that reason. It was always a muscular and rich wine with top flight finesse.
Something changed in 2020 and it became accessible in its youth. Previously, it needed 10 years and the 2020 and now 2021 are stunning out of the gates. Is this a leap? Only time will tell. I had a bottle of 2020 the other night and it was extraordinary and blew me away. It was so well knit, so velvety and was ridiculous pure. It improved with air but out of the bottle the tannins were so pure and my goodness was the oak super integrated. It was so pleasurable to drink.
My partner and I have a certain subset of wines that we talk about all the time that we adore but they always undersell what we feel is their quality level. Mostly what we love and talk about sells well (e.g. Brisset’s Bourgogne Blanc “Cuvee Cassaneas.”) But we also talk about other wines we adore and we truly have no idea why they don’t sell well. They sell ok but we should be selling a lot more of them and, more importantly, you should be drinking a lot more of them.
Some of these wines, you are going to ask “why on earth are they hammering on this wine?”
This is sort of a trust us, there’s a reason. There are a lot of wines that simply outperform what you think that they could be based on their region or grape.
These wines are often going to be mostly entry level wines that massively out punch their weight class. They are opportunties to see the characteristics of the great wines of the world (structure, density, balance) for entry level prices.
Most of them, I’m not going to get rich off. But they are so good that it just enhances the overall Fass Selections experience. Plus, we like making people happy.
Billon
I’ve never had a bottle of wine from him that was anything but great. In any vintage. In any vineyard. With any grape.
Viognier. Basic Cote Rotie. Single Vineyard Rote Rotie. Condrieu. IGP. They’re all great. Great, great, great, great great.
The man has the most basic labels I’ve ever seen. He could give a fig about the press. Or recognition. He just goes about his business every day making great wine.
Below are the Jeb scores for the great Brocarde
2021 Billon Cote Rotie La Brocarde – ????-??? Jeb Dunnuck
2020 Billon Cote Rotie La Brocarde – 94-96 Pts, Jeb Dunnuck
2019 Billon Cote Rotie La Brocarde – 95-97 Pts, Jeb Dunnuck
2018 Billon Cote Rotie La Brocarde – 94-97 Pts, Jeb Dunnuck
2017 Billon Cote Rotie La Brocarde – 96 Pts, Jeb Dunnuck
2016 Billon Cote Rotie La Brocarde – 94-96 Pts, Jeb Dunnuck
Oh, and for those of you who are not fluent in Mandarin, Shifu means a master.
The Wine
Up today is my personal favorite of the two single vineyard Billon Cote Roties. The 2021 Maryline & Christophe Billon Côte Rotie “La Brocarde” which is also $76.99 a bottle on a 3-pack. Maybe 5-8 years this can age no worries but it’s so insane right now and sung out of barrel in July 2023. It is extraordinary and profound Côte Rotie of the highest degree.
So many deep intoxicating aromas I don’t know where to begin. Mint, leather, amalgam of berries with so many flowers. My god this wine is floral. There is an engaging lilac/violet and even dandelion thing going on. It is just insane floral as Brocarde I always think is one of the most floral Côte Roties out there. It’s intoxicating. Smoke and cassis eventually with air. It’s just crazy. The nose on this wine is absolutely psychotic. Floral and so complex. Classic Brocarde. So smoky (mesquite?), floral and feral. So mineral and full of deep mineralogy like iron and things of that nature. It is so sick, so complex, so nuanced and really is more of a floral/spice thing versus the fruit of the Rozier. The fruit there is blue and cooling. Each hour the nose got more and more profound.
On the palate, the fruit is incredibly concentrated – it’s almost alive in the mouth. It’s so velvety. Each sip is an experience and it has energy and freshness like nothing else. The energy and freshness in all of the 2021 Côte Rotie is like nothing else. Just incredible. Because with the nuclear levels of fruit one needs energy and freshness which raises the complexity level. I cannot get over the texture of this wine. The tannins are so high class and really really refined. The tannins in La Brocarde are remarkable. They spread so evenly across the palate. So sweet, so juicy. Sweet velvety blackberry fruit gushes on your palate like an oil geyser with a terrific finish that does not quit. It is so s delineated and dazzlingly pure. Big blackberry fruit that just explodes in your mouth. It’s so sweet and floral. Terrific long finish that is actually legitimately amazing. There is so much tiny berry fruit complexity and it saps down on the the finish. It’s masterpiece and a work of art.
“Not yet bottled, the 2020 Côte Rôtie La Brocarde (there’s 3% Viognier) sports a dense purple hue as well as smoking good aromatics of darker, almost blue fruits, charred meat, graphite, and crushed stone-like minerality. It’s a big, powerhouse Côte Rôtie, but it stays tight, focused, and pure on the palate, with plenty of ripe tannins. It’s a wine that will demand bottle age.” – 94-96 points, Jeb Dunnuck (2021)
Please call Cheryl at 949 378 5251 with your order if you are a first time customer (we prefer not to receive credit card numbers over E-Mail).
OFFICE HOURS 4-7 PM
I love drinking and selecting wines – but my passion for teaching people about wine is almost as big. I’m happy to announce a block of time each day where people can call me just to chat about wine in general. These blocks are NOT intended to sell wine (I do that all day). This is to talk to me about wine pairings or great producers or how long to age wines or styles of wine making or the latest wine controversy. My goal is to help people learn more about wine and enjoy it more. Call me at 917-912-4355 from 4-7EST Monday – Friday.
|
|
A Word about Fass Selections and Social Media
I am big into certain social media and I want people to take pictures of the wines they have received or will receive and tag me in them and share their thoughts. I a am on Instagram. Please tag me there. I also am on Delectable which I love a lot. It is Iphone/Ipad only, but it’s like Instagram meets Facebook for wine. Tag me there and find me there as well. I want to know if you liked the wine, were not moved by the wine, hated the wine or the wine gave you a religious experience. I want to know it all. Feedback is key and I will answer all feedback e-mails as quickly as I can.
For all billing and invoicing inquiries please contact Rick at accounts@fassselections.com or 919-396-9876