A 100% Syrah aged in 50% new French oak, the 2007 Cote Rotie Lancement Cote Blonde is a prodigious wine that flirts with perfection. It offers up notes of bacon fat, tapenade, sweet cassis and black raspberries, graphite and subtle barbecue smoke. Opulent, fleshy and rich, it is a total hedonistic and intellectual turn-on. Drink it over the next 12-15 years. One of France’s most brilliant small artisanal wineries is that of the Ogier family in Ampuis, situated about six blocks north of Guigal’s vast network of underground cellars. The value picks are the wines made from the steep hillsides north of the old Roman settlement of Vienne.Importer: Robert Kacher Selections, Washington, DC; tel. (202) 832-9083