Levet 'Cuvee Amethyste' Cote Rotie 2022
Levet 'Cuvee Amethyste' Cote Rotie 2022
Deep ruby/plum-hued, the 2022 Côte Rôtie Amethyste brings terrific richness and concentration, with ripe red and black fruits as well as violets, smoked meats, rose petals, and incense nuances. Fermented with more stems than usual and aged in demi-muids, it's medium to full-bodied, has a layered, elegant mouthfeel, ripe tannins, and a great finish. This complex, floral, seamless Côte Rôtie will keep for two decades or more. Drink 2025-2045.
Based in the heart of Ampuis, Bernard and his daughter Agnès Levet farm 3.5 hectares across six parcels, including Chavaroche, Landonne, Côte Rozier, and others on both the Côte Brune and Côte Blonde. The domaine produces three Côte Rôtie cuvées: Améthyste (a blend from multiple sites), Les Journaries (from Landonne and Côte Rozier), and La Chavaroche (from the Chavaroche lieu-dit). The wines are fermented in concrete with submerged cap, using varying amounts of stems. Chavaroche is 100% whole cluster. Elevage spans 2 to 3 years in a mix of foudre and demi-muids with minimal new oak, and the wines are bottled unfined and unfiltered. They recently completed construction on a new cellar, but that certainly hasn't impacted the style. These are as classic Levet as they've ever been. I always love tasting with Agnès Levet in the cellar, and it's worth noting the labels differ by market, with Les Journaries labeled Maestria in Europe and La Chavaroche sold as Pérolines.
93 points Wine AdvocateDrink Date: 2028 - 2044
Aromas of dark wild berries, spices, blood and dark cherries preface the 2022 Cote Rotie Amethyste, a medium to full-bodied, fleshy and structured Côte-Rôtie framed by powdery tannins and a dense, vibrant core of fruit. It concludes with a long, ethereal and licorice-inflected finish and was crafted from different estate plots. Fermentation was with 80% whole clusters, and it matured in used barrels. Perfectly crafted, this Côte-Rôtie is a wine that invariably rewards patience. Published: Feb 13, 2025
***(*) JLL (John Livingstone-Learmonth
Drink Date: 2026 - 2047
From cask: dark red; the nose has a quiet, rounded aroma led by a black cherry, blue fruit, with a note of black coffee. The palate slots in pretty well, shows easy flow black stone fruits with a reach of tannin that is still working its way towards mildness, integration. It can come together for a genuine, rather timeless glass of Rôtie, could be more polished along the second half. October 2023
The “house cuvée” is a selected blend from all the parcels that the Levet family owns. Produced in the same manner as “La Chavaroche” and “Les Journaries,” this bottling tends to be the most open and immediately seductive of the three versions of Levet Côte-Rôtie. This easiness is relative, of course, for this bottling still impresses. Levet’s typical smoky and savage character is here counterpointed by an elegant, floral, and wild-berry fruit. *in the USA, the name Amethyste does not appear on the label but is what the wine goes by in name
