1991 Gallet Côte-Rôtie

Gallet’s ’91 is an old friend. The vast majority of this bottling (80+%) comes from the Lancement vineyard on the Côte Blonde. Lancement seems to give wines of Burgundian texture and level of fragrance, and in 1991, Gallet really strutted his stuff. He’s broken in his barrels, so there’s none of the woodiness of his ’89; the ’91 is more elegant than his excellent ’90, while losing nothing in depth of flavor. I consider it a superior wine, and one of the very finest Côte-Rôties of the stellar ’91 vintage. And it’s starting to mature a bit- this bottle had a smoky sweetness starting to emerge from the raspberry fruit. Three or four more years, and it will be full into the frying-bacon phase. Superb wine.

SY (8/99)

Update: Still on track…

(3/01)