By the 1960s most of Côte-Rôtie lay abandoned: with no one willing to do back-breaking work on the terraces, winemakers turned to farming apricots beneath the slopes. Now the wines of old school producers like Levet are once again rightly revered. Agnès Levet meticulously tends 3.5ha of Syrah – dispersed between six old-vine lieux-dits, including the highly revered vineyards ‘La Chavaroche’, ‘La Landonne’, and ‘La Moulin’. These steep, organically farmed terraces have been worked and harvested manually since the Levets first acquired them in the 1930s.
A delicate approach in the winery results in enticing floral aromatics, mineral-accented black fruit, and peppery spice built around a structure for long ageing. Whole-cluster fermentation takes place in tank using native yeasts, before ageing in large oak casks and smaller barrels for three years. Wines are bottled with minimal fining and without filtration.
With an enthusiastic following among sommeliers, Levet’s wines are never easy to find. But for lovers of classically styled Northern Rhône Syrah, it's worth the effort.
