Côte Rôtie’s renaissance began in the late 1970s when, inspired by the success of Marcel Guigal and Albert Dervieux, the next generation began to see a future in the backbreaking job of working its extremely steep slopes.

A handful of these native sons—such as Rostaing, Jamet, Gerin and Ogier—have since become revered among connoisseurs for their singular expressions of the “Roasted Slope.”

Yet, these descendents of long-established families don’t have a monopoly on great Côte Rôtie. Two of the wines that best capture the Côte Rôtie’s bridge-to-Burgundy marriage of power and delicacy are the limited-production cuvées of a little-known outsider, Yves Gangloff.

Gangloff’s two rare Côte Rôties—La Sereine Noire and La Barbarine—are favorites among hard-core collectors, who hunt them down with each vintage. But until now, the 2014s haven’t found their way to the U.S.

Fortunately, we’ve just acquired small quantities of each, which we’re pleased to offer as an attractively priced 3-bottle set. And we can offer something even rarer: his mythic 1990 and 1998 Côte Rôties.

Man of the Soil
Gangloff arrived from Alsace in 1980, just at the dawn of Côte Rôtie’s revival, spending the first seven years working in the vineyards of Delas. This was a period he credits as the foundation of his work. As he told Rhône authority John Livingstone-Learmonth, “All my first learning and habits came from the soil.”

At the same time he began acquiring his own plots, the fruit from which was sold to the négoce until 1987 when, with no buyers, he dove into the deep end of domaine-bottling. A decade later—working with and inspired by his beloved late wife Mathilde—he split his Côte Rôtie production into the two cuvées he makes today, driven by terroir character and vine age.

The more powerful of the two cuvées, La Sereine Noire, is made with a large percentage of whole clusters, sourced from Gangloff’s oldest Syrah vines, including 1930s plantings of the ancient local serine clone, in Combard-Mollard and the top Côte Brune site of Côte Rozier.

La Barbarine is the more elegant Côte Rôtie, from Yves’ younger vines in Côteaux du Tupin and Combard on the granite slopes of the Côte Blonde. The blend includes 3 to 5% Viognier and is aged in used demi-muids.

Today, these elegantly beautiful Côte Rôties are among the most sought-after wines of Rhône insiders, and past releases are nearly non-existent in the market.

Here then are Gangloff’s two brilliant 2014s. And if you’d like to delve back into the domaine’s earliest days, when he only made a single Côte Rôtie, we can offer the following: 1990 Côte Rôtie and 1998 Côte Rôtie.