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

Similar to the La Mouline with its forward, incredibly sexy style, the 2012 Côte Rôtie La Turque (there’s 7% Viognier in the blend) offers a saturated purple color to go with meaty, smoky notes of cassis, cured meats, chocolate and roasted herbs. It’s a big mouthful of a wine, with full-bodied richness and a stacked mid-palate, but it has a seamless, weightless texture, perfectly ripe tannin and a blockbuster finish. I’d happily drink a glass today, but it should be at its finest from 2020-2046

The 2018 Côte Rôtie La Turque offers meatier, more savory, mineral-driven aromatics yet has an incredible core of pure cassis and darker fruits. A straight-up massive wine, it has a stacked mid-palate, terrific freshness, and again, a purity of fruit that’s just off the chart. Despite its overall size and richness, it’s weightless and as graceful as a ballerina. It always needs more time to come around compared to the La Mouline and generally starts to drink beautifully a decade after the vintage.

Features warm fig bread and ganache notes out front, followed by densely layered blackberry, plum and black currant reduction flavors. Ganache details echo through the finish, along with Turkish coffee and smoldering alder hints. A large-scale wine that should cruise in the cellar. Best from 2020 through 2040. 400 cases made. (James Molesworth)

Inky magenta. Candied cherry, blackcurrant, exotic spices, violet oil and a hint of olive on the powerfully scented nose. Velvety, seamless and alluringly sweet, offering palate-staining, mineral-laced black/blue fruit preserve, floral pastille, smoky bacon and spicecake flavors that open up steadily on the back half. Displays sharp delineation and a resonating floral note on a strikingly long finish that’s framed by plush, rounded tannins.

Shows beautiful freshness, despite its age, weight and power, with red currant, mulled blackberry and floral notes floating atop earthy singed tobacco and toasty cedar elements. Just hitting its stride, matching exotic spices with smoke, minerality and a pleasingly dense texture. The lengthy finish reveals baker’s chocolate and toasted herbs. Excellent. Drink now through 2039. (Kristen Bieler)

Shut down tight on this occasion, the dark, impenetrable 2018 Cote Rotie La Turque is clearly dense and packed with potential. Cedary notes, dark, concentrated fruit, potent tannins and a long, dusty finish suggest plenty of upside for the patient.