2020 Cedric Parpette Cote-Rotie - Le Plomb
Regular price $85.00
Cédric Parpette was a car mechanic turned micro-vigneron, with 3.5 hectares planted and tended by his father-in-law and him in the Northern Rhône. Cédric began bottling his own wines in 2003 and continued until his untimely death in 2022 at the age of 49. Thankfully his sons have taken over the domaine, but this vintage was still farmed and made by Parpette père.
'Le Plomb' is a lieu-dit (named vineyard area) in the northernmost part of the Côte-Rôtie. Soils are iron-oxide mica-schist with some quartz and other rocky bits (“rock, with a side of rock”, as one website put it). Cédric planted this plot in 1996 with sérine, which is either a biotype (a.k.a. clone) of syrah or a distinct but related variety, depending on whom you read. In any case, it tends to produce smaller berries and wines of more aromatic complexity and finesse than “regular” syrah.
In 2020 Cédric forgot to make a separate declaration of the harvest from Le Plomb, which is required by French law in order to put the name of the vineyard on the label. So instead he added an image of the planet of Saturn, which is associated with lead (plomb in French) in alchemy and astrology. Cédric’s 'Le Plomb' is 100% syrah/sérine, de-stemmed and with indigenous fermentation in a concrete vat. The wine then aged for about a year and a half in barrels - mostly older ones, with a few new. It was bottled without fining or filtration.
This is classic Côte-Rôtie, with dark yet discreet fruit framed by the beguiling Northern Rhône trio of floral, herbal, and mineral. There is both delicacy and force, with nice development in the bottle and already well-resolved tannins. Drink it in a Burgundy stem with cassoulet, tagines, beef stew, or even barbecue. It is even agile enough for picante Mexican food. And this being Côte-Rôtie, it of course will age for years if not decades, should you be so inclined.