Bernard Levet, Cote-Rotie La Chavaroche, 2015

This is old-school Cote-Rotie made the way the Levet family has done it since 1936: a touch of new oak (well under 15%), whole clusters, and zero interest in chasing fashion. La Chavaroche comes off a 1.2-hectare parcel high on the Cote Brune, where granite and schist soils give Levet's Syrah its iron backbone and savory grip. Most of the fruit goes in whole-cluster (no more than half de-stemmed) and the wine sits 30 to 36 months in old barrels before bottling, so what you get is purity rather than makeup. The 2015 is a powerhouse vintage in the Northern Rhone, packing concentration and ripe tannin, which means this one rewards patience. Decant it if you open it young, and don't be afraid to cellar it for years.