Wine & Spirits - Winter 2019 - 57

Top 100 Wineries

O LD WO RLD

Domaines Ott

Delas Frères

FRANCE | PROVENCE
In a sea of pink plonk, Domaine Ott rosés are beacons of reality,
their complex flavors based on carefully farmed vines rather than
marketing.

FRANCE | RHONE
As Delas prepares to inaugurate their new winery in Tain
l'Hermitage, the wines are already better than ever.

JEAN-FRANÇOIS
OTT

1912
The
Rouzaud family

FOUNDED:

WHILE THE CURVACEOUS BOTTLES ARE plenty Instagrammable, Domaines Ott rosés are not your
typical pink quaffers. This is a Provençal estate
with real roots, founded by Marcel Ott when he
arrived in Provence from Alsace in 1896. He first
bought Château de Selle in Taradeau, an inland
town on a high limestone slope, and later added
Clos Mireille, the estate on the coast in La Londe
Les Maures, planting the sites with the aim of
producing "noble" Provençal wines. Now the
fourth generation, brothers Jean-François and
Christian Ott, continue his vision, with support
from the Rouzaud family of Louis Roederer, who
bought the company in 2004. The Otts take an
obsessive approach to rosé, starting in the vineyards, which they've always farmed organically.
("My grandfather said, 'If we put it into the soil,
one day we are going to drink it,'" says JeanFrançois). A team of 60 care for the vines yearround, de-budding, de-leafing and, come harvest
time, picking by hand-there are no harvest
machines here. In 2017, they opened a new winery at Château de Selle; it's equipped with specially designed tanks that stir the lees slowly and
precisely, as well as plenty of large wooden casks,
where the wines rest for months before bottling.
Their care pays off in elegant rosés laden with
terroir-driven detail. -T.Q.T.

2018 Côtes de Provence Cru Classé Clos Mireille
Rosé ($54, 94 points) Recently certified organic,
Clos Mireille is a patch of schist and clay right next
to the sea in La Londe Les Maures, planted mainly
to grenache, with some cinsault, rolle and syrah. The
2018 tastes like the Provençal coast, with its lemon
trees and herbal scrub, fraises des bois and mouthwatering salinity.

VITICULTURISTS:

Jean-François and
Christian Ott
ACRES OWNED:

600
CASES PRODUCED:

67,000 ( estate);
55,000 (BY.OTT)
ESTATE GROWN:

100% (cru wines)
IMPORTER:

Maisons Marques
& Domaines USA,
Oakland, CA

2017 Hermitage Domaine des Tourettes Blanc
($105, 96 points) The vintage may have been challenged by heat waves, hail storms and drought,
and yet this white wine feels radiant. It's blend of
marsanne and 10 percent roussanne culled from
L'Ermite, Le Sabot and La Tourette, spontaneously
fermented and aged in barrels with regular lees stirring for nearly a year. The 2017 opens gradually, the
initial wood tones fading as the wine grows golden
and opulent. Honeysuckle scents and lemony acidity
play around the juicy Cavaillon melon flavors, adding a delicate impression, while bitter-almond and
mineral notes add a deep savor. It's glorious now, but
deserves another decade in the cellar to harmonize.
1835
The
Rouzaud family

FOUNDED:
OWNER:

OWNER:

WINEMAKERS/

JACQUES GRANGE,
CLAIRE DARNAUDMCKERROW

2018 Côtes de Provence Cru Classé Château de
Selle Rosé ($54, 93 points) Château de Selle was
Marcel Ott's first estate, an imposingly rocky slope
of gypsum, red clay, dolomite, gravel and sandstone
in Taradeau. The rosé it produced in 2018-a blend
of grenache with cinsault, syrah and mourvèdre-is
immediately inviting in its fresh, floral scents and
bright, energetic flavors, delivering a seashell minerality like a jolt of electricity.

THE DELAS FAMILY TRACES ITS roots on the Hermitage hill to 1835, when Charles Audibert and
Philippe Delas purchased Maison Junique, a winery in Tournon-sur-Rhône. The family eventually moved its base north, to St-Jean-de-Muzols
in St-Joseph, and built the winery into one of
the leading producers in the northern Rhône.
Champagne Deutz acquired the firm in 1977
and, under the guidance of Fabrice Rosset, Delas
has reenergized its commitment to the Northern
Rhône, adding vineyards, including the 50 acres
at Domaine des Grands Chemins in Crozes-Hermitage, purchased in 2006, and investing 14 million euros in a new winery in Tain l'Hermitage
that's slated to open in early 2020. Meanwhile,
winemaker Jacques Grange, who joined the team
in 1997, has overseen the conversion of the vineyards to organic farming-a move he believes
has increased the energy in the wines. The performance of the latest releases in our tastings
gives credence to his impression, especially when
it comes to the wines from Delas's 24 acres on
the Hermitage hill. -T.Q.T.

WINEMAKERS:

Jacques Grange,
Claire DarnaudMcKerrow
VITICULTURISTS:

All of above, and
Gregoire Besson
ACRES OWNED: 79

2016 Crozes-Hermitage Domaine des Grands
Chemins ($42, 94 points) Since Delas acquired
this 50-acre vineyard in 2006, Jacques Grange has
continued to fine-tune the winemaking to parallel the
team's increasing knowledge of the vines. For this
wine, they make a selection from 17 acres and pick
parcel by parcel. Vinified in open cement tanks and
aged for 14 months in a combination of closed tanks
and used Burgundy barrels, the 2016 is youthful and
vibrant, with fine, firm tannins underscoring the soaring, floral red fruit.

CASES PRODUCED:

2018 Côtes de Provence By.Ott Rosé ($25, 91
points) Ott's "second-label" rosé, By.Ott, blends fruit
from Clos Mireille and Château de Selle, augmented
with grapes from two long-time growers. It's as airy
and silky as whipped cream, yet delivers plenty of flavor, the red-berry notes lifted by bright acidity.

180,000
ESTATE GROWN:

IMPORTER:

Maisons Marques
& Domaines,
Oakland, CA

2016 Hermitage Les Bessards ($257, 94 points)
This comes from a steeply terraced parcel of old
vines on the Hermitage hill. The concentration of the
fruit reads in its intense red-cherry flavors, as well as
its taut acidity and the licorice-scented tannins that
will hold the wine strong over the next decade.
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