TN: 1997 Bonnefond Côte-Rotie

This felt painfully over the hill upon opening - nothing but oxidized aromas - but did rejuvenate after three hours of air to a straightforward, fairly linear mix of blue and darker fruit. The palate was soft with most of the acidity being volatile, but the fish we had for lunch disguised that and it made for an acceptable if utterly unexciting drink. If this were slightly darker fruited it could have been an inexpensive Dão from the late 1980s, but even those have more structure to them - and can be had today for significantly lower prices.
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Had the 1995 with the same label last fall …
similar performance … I suppose it was never a very good wine at all … now just drinkable, hardly with pleasure.

That’s a shame. One would/could expect at least a decent drink. How are recent Bonnefonds? Not had this producer.

I’ve had the Colline Couzou & Rozier. Quite nice for what I paid. Stylistically, fresher on the palate than Villard’s Gallet Blanc if you’ve had that.

I add that I had a 2000 Bonnefond about 10y ago …
not past its best then, fully mature, but a bit mean and uninteresting …
not worth more than 85p …
Are recent vintages better?

Not a fan of Bonnefond - too much oak. Maybe things are improving? According to Livingston-Learmonth, “At last the boys have woken up to their overuse of new oak, and have cut that back, and increased their cask size to 400 litres and 600 litres across the board.” Also evidently they are now including more stems as well.

I saw them at a discount and purchased one of each from a recent vintage to see if I liked them. I did and went back for a few more of both. I took sporadic notes but described them as being made in a fresh style and having crunchy, ripe fruits. Rozier is a step up and was more floral.

Here is a recent Charlie Fu tasting note from last BD Ansonia samples: 2018 Bonnefond Cote Rotie Rozier - VERY impressive cote rote - first time with the producer but now officially on the radar. A well put together modern style cote rotie, in the same vein as Xavier Gerard. Concentrated dark fruit with ample exotic spice and lilies. This has the stuffing to really go the distance I feel.

I have a few dozen in my cellar from about 2013 forward, and was getting pretty nervous about them. And that note plus Tom Wilcox’s thoughts on them have given me some more confidence that they have improved in recent years and mine might turn out ok. I’ve only drunk one bottle so far and it was ok but not great imo. It was too young in any case.

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Do you know what vintage they made this change?

I don’t. JLL does not mention when this shift was made.

RP’s note on the 2006 Rozier talks about the Rozier & Rochains as having 85-90% new oak and the basic one 25-30%. An importer notes changes in the last decade.

Now they’re 25-30% new for SVD and 10% for the Couzou.

Edit: For 2009 they cut the new oak in half & increased barrel size (Rare Wine Co).

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Are these ppl related to the bonnefond who owns part of ruchottes?