Black raspberries, cassis, violets, blood orange, incense, and pepper notes all emerge from the 2023 Côte Rôtie Seigneur De Maugiron, a barrel sample that's clearly a terrific wine in the making. It's medium to full-bodied, has a wonderfully pure, polished, elegant mouthfeel, just about perfect balance, ultra-fine tannins, and a great finish. It's impeccably made.

A bigger wine from this estate that comes from the Grandes Vignes lieu-dit at the top of Hermitage Hill, the 2023 Hermitage Ligne De Crete Les Grandes Vignes offers ample blue fruits, violets, scorched earth, and huge minerality on the nose. It's full-bodied on the palate, with an incredibly lifted violet and floral character, ripe tannins, ample mid-palate depth, and a great finish.

Based on 100% Syrah from a Grand Cru terroir in the heart of this great appellation and raised in new and used barrels, the 2023 Côte Rôtie La Landonne sports a deep purple hue as well as cassis and mulberry fruits intermixed with scorched earth, pepper, violets, and blood orange. It's medium to full-bodied, has a pure, seamless mouthfeel, brilliant tannins, integrated acidity, and a great, great finish. It's very much in the clean, straight, flawlessly balanced style of this estate today.

The 2023 Côte-Rôtie Seigneur de Maugiron leads with dried violets, assertive black cherry and pencil shavings alongside smoky tones. Sparks of orange blossom add more florality. Medium-bodied, round and juicy, the racy 2023 levels off with a zesty slice of blood orange and plentiful vitality on the refined finale.

The complex 2023 Côte-Rôtie La Landonne opens with pronounced black plum, stone dust, lightly perfumed cedar and tints of violets. Wrapped around fine-grained tannins, the 2023 is a medium-bodied and focused La Landonne, checking out with vivid lift and precision on the lean finish.