Bernard Levet, Cote-Rotie La Chavaroche, 2009

Bernard Levet is one of Côte-Rôtie's last true traditionalists, a tiny Ampuis family domaine (now led by daughter Agnès) whose wines importer Neal Rosenthal has carried every year since 1983. La Chavaroche comes from a 1.2-hectare, southwest-facing parcel of roughly 40-year-old vines on the schist-and-granite Côte Brune, made with mostly whole clusters, long three-week macerations, and three years in large old oak. The 2009 was one of the great recent northern Rhône vintages, ripe, deep, and richly fruited, so this is a powerful, generous Chavaroche with the structure to keep developing for years.