01 Domaine Jamet, Cote-Rotie

Sweet, sweet child. She could have been an opera singer or maybe danced ballet. Jamet's 2001 is gentle--a delicate newborn with the pedigree of artists in her family. It brings all the power of syrah, delineates each chord to a single, perfect pitch, and then recomposes the score in the glass. So, burly meat notes become hints of peppery pancetta. Wild gardens of violet become tinctures of Chanel. And the cool, raspberry palate stays cool and raspberried, almost like a virgin cocktail before dinner. For the little that this wine wants to show today--it seems to be thinking so hard--it can't help but show a hint of its surely brooding, smoky future. It is the difference between an ankle and a thigh, an evening gown blown slightly up in the breeze and a mini-skirt shrinking in the summer sun. At every chance, it waltzes toward the elegant, dances toward the tongue, sings toward the patience that love affords.