E. Guigal E. Guigal Côte Rôtie La Mouline 2018 750ml

The 2018 Cote Rotie La Mouline is immensely seductive, offering up enticing notes of floral potpourri and red berries on the nose. Those strawberries and raspberries persist onto the full-bodied palate and through the long, lush finish, buoyed by supple, creamy-textured tannins. This is the most complete, compelling vintage of La Mouline I’ve tasted.

The 2012 Côte Rôtie La Mouline reminds me of the 2011 with its upfront, incredibly perfumed nose of spring flowers, cured meats, roasted herbs, olives and sweet cassis fruit. Full-bodied, beautifully textured, mouth-filling and already impossible to resist, it expands on the palate and I guarantee this beauty will put a smile on your face anytime over the coming two decades.

Scheduled to be bottled early in 2022, the 2018 Côte Rôtie La Mouline is a blockbuster of a wine offering full-bodied aromas and flavors of black raspberries, cassis, spring flowers, espresso, and violets. Coming from a steep, terraced, warmer terroir and fermented with 10% Viognier, it’s always the sexiest, more exotic, and seamless, as well as approachable, of the flagship releases. The 2018 will unquestionably pure a smile on your face as soon as it’s released, but it will ideally be given 7–8 years of bottle age and drunk over the following 30+ years.

This has a brooding feel, with layers of warm tobacco leaf, roasted alder and juniper, and sweet tapenade leading the way, backed by a dense core of macerated plum, black currant and raspberry fruit. The long, smoldering finish shows terrific latent grip. Best from 2018 through 2030. 415 cases made. (James Molesworth)

Very ripe, with layers of fig, boysenberry and plum compote forming the core, inlaid liberally with licorice snap, roasted apple wood and Turkish coffee notes. Shows lots of heft, but everything pulls together on the finish, exhibiting drive and definition. Best from 2020 through 2040. 65 cases imported. (James Molesworth)

A beefy red pierced by intriguing spice and dried incense notes, with heavy espresso, charred anise and warm cedar elements draped over flavors of red plum and chocolate ganache. Shows savory acidity that drives energy through the long, cigar box-tinged finish. Brawny and bold, with serious power and pedigree. Drink now through 2039. (Kristen Bieler)

Tight, unevolved and borderline backwards (which is rare for this cuvée), the 2013 Côte Rôtie La Mouline is a wine that reminds Marcel Guigal of the 2006. It offers a terrific perfume of spiced red and black fruits, violets, lots of minerality and even a hint of damp forest floor to go with a full-bodied, elegant, seamless style on the palate. It’s not the most massive wine in the lineup, but it has terrific purity, fine, polished tannin and beautiful length. It should dish out ample pleasure over the coming 20 years.