2014 Bila Haut Cotes de Roussillon Villages Latour de France Occultum Lapidem 750 ml

Parker’s “Hard to Resist” Bargain from Michel Chapoutier

It can be easy to forget that the world’s most influential wine critic got his start with a small-circulation direct-mail newsletter. When Robert Parker launched what was then called The Baltimore-Washington Wine Advocate in 1978, the Maryland-based attorney didn’t know he would forever change the wine world. The Wine Advocate’s 100-point rating system soon transformed wine markets around the world. Parker shined an especially bright spotlight on the wines of the Rhône Valley, almost single-handedly catapulting the names of the greatest producers into the international limelight.

Three names rose above the rest: Guigal for its 100-point “La-La” Côte-Roties. The Perrin family’s Château de Beaucastel for its 100-point “Hommage à Jacques Perrin.” But both take a back seat to Michel Chapoutier when it comes Parker perfection. Chapoutier’s “Ermitage” has garnered a whopping twenty-six 100-point reviews from The Wine Advocate — more than ALL of Bordeaux’s First Growths combined!

In 1999, Michel Chapoutier stumbled upon a neglected 185-acre property in the Roussillon. The soils were a rugged mix of flakey schist, gneiss, and clay. Chapoutier was smitten by the wildness of the slopes of the Agly Valley — about as close as French vines get to the Spanish border — and the vineyards bracketed by scrappy brush, sparse trees, and wild herbs. There was a perfume in the air that Michel simply couldn’t get out of his head, a mix of smoky rosemary, thyme, juniper, lavender, and olive. Chapoutier quickly purchased the estate, determined to bring it back to life.

Chapoutier’s pride and joy is his Côtes du Roussillon Villages Latour de France Occultum Lapidem, a luscious mix of 70-year-old-vine, head-trained Grenache, Syrah, and Carignan. In the cool 2014 vintage, harvest was pushed back to the end of September. That extra hangtime allowed M. Chapoutier to turn out a spellbinding blend that The Wine Advocate deemed worthy of 92 points, calling it “hard to resist,” and “elegant and layered, with a great texture.”   

Brilliant jet-black to the rim. Lavish aromas of black fruit preserves, garrigue, sweet spice, and licorice. Rich, dense, and compact, sleek and suave texturally, the attack is absolutely MASSIVE, yet due to the low pH offered by these flakey schist soils, all of the natural opulence is buttressed by superb acidity and grip. Drink now for its primary-fruit flash, or like all of Chapoutier’s great reds, lay this one down for a decade. It could surely benefit from the rest.

92 points. $35 on release. Just $23.99 today on WineAccess. Shipping included on 6.