Appy Friday:

A LaLa neighbor without the monster price tag!

We know your love for real-deal Côte-Rôtie is real because we just blew through our sizable allocation of Guigal’s three “LaLas” in record time. But those cost 5x what you can get this Côte-Rôtie from next door to La Landonne.

Considering Billon’s Day job for years was growing and making those same Guigals, the relative collectible value his wines offer is insane. Even at the full price, it stands out. At our price today, it’s a steal.

Jamet, Rostaing, Gaillard, Gerin, Ogier - they all source from Côte Rozier for their Côte-Rôtie gems. Domaine Christophe Billon’s beginnings date back to 1986, when he inherited a half-hectare plot that was planted by his grandfather in 1942, and it took him until 1991 to reach the quality and yields from there to start his own label and left Guigal to focus on his own wines.

Per Jeb Dunnuck “Located outside of Ampuis, Billon pulls from two sites in the northern part of the Côte-Rôtie, the Brocarde and Côte Rozier. These are rich, powerful wines that see plenty of new barrels, yet still hold onto their classic Côte Rôtie characters. Billon makes a relatively modern, rich, and powerful style of wine that still never loses its Côte Rôtie soul.”

That SOUL offers an amazing depth of smoky, espresso-flavored toast that is seamlessly interwoven with bittersweet Valrhona chocolate, black currant and fig fruit, and a great underlying minerality. Sleek and silky on the floral finish, this is equally lush and captivating on both the nose and palate, a rare feat for a young Rhône, indeed.

At a price rarely seen for a cult following single-site Côte-Rôtie, enjoy with reckless abandon, while it lasts.

95 Points – Jeb Dunnuck “The 2020 Côte-Rôtie Côte Rozier comes from a site just above La Landonne, and I always find a similar smoky, meaty character from this site. Ripe black fruits, barbecued meat, pepper, and chocolate all define the bouquet, and it’s a mouth-filling 2020 with building tannins, a great mid-palate, and a big finish. It has more baby fat than the Brocarde, but still needs bottle age.”