Bonnefond Côte Rôtie ‘Colline de Couzou’ 2023

Patrick and Christophe Bonnefond’s wines somehow keep getting better. They’ve enjoyed a string of excellent recent vintages in the vines, but they also seem to be hitting their stride in the cellar. Once firmly in the ripe, oaky, “extroverted” camp that made them a darling of Robert Parker, the domaine has shifted towards subtler expression in recent years: less time in oak, larger barrels, and earlier harvests. The Bonnefonds now achieve an extraordinary subtlety in their wines — it’s still bold, brooding, inky-dark Northern Rhône Syrah, but somehow also with subtlety, grace, and lift.

“Colline de Couzou,” is unusually dense and delicious this year – tasted blind we would have guessed it was “Rochins,” one of the single vineyard cuvées. The nose shows douglas fir spice and blackberries; the mouth is long and sleek. Vinous’s reviewer found “fresh violets, red and black cherries, pencil shavings, cedar,” writing “this finishes with great energy.”