What the Wine? #14: Domaine Rene Rostaing Cote Rotie La Landonne from “Better Call Saul” S06E09
Gus Fring, played by Giancarlo Esposito, drank a glass of Domaine Rene Rostaing Cote Rotie La Landonne in season six, episode nine of Better Call Saul and didn’t drink Guigal and wished he didn’t drink the glass of “Dressler & Vaughn” red that he was served. As far as I can tell the latter doesn’t exist. There is a “Vaughn Duffy Wines” winery in California’s Sonoma county and a Dressler Estate in Pennsylvania that makes wine-like ciders, but I found no “Dressler & Vaughn”. (On a side note: the Perfect Pairing, winery-themed romantic Netflix movie is set in the fictional “Vaughn Family Wines”.). Back to Fring drinking wine and being served by a woman called Brett. As my wife, who is a wine educator, pointed out it may be telling names as “Brettanomyces” is a known wine fault. So Fring doesn’t like the first one and the owner of the establishment gives him a glass of La Landonne. He also shares the story of why he had that bottle open but more importantly shares this about the wine itself
It is from the birthplace of Syrah, Côte-Rtie. This one is Rene Rostaing’s La Landonne. So, I’m in college. And I make it to Europe, my first time. And I got a little enthusiastic with my Eurail pass. Long story short, I get lost. And I mean really lost. It is the middle of the night, pitch black. I’m standing on this cobblestone street with my backpack and there’s no one around. I mean, I have absolutely no idea where I am. Finally, I get to this stand of cedar trees and I just go ahead and roll out the sleeping bag. And the next morning I wake up and. I’m in paradise. Ampuis. It’s this perfect little village in the southeast. It’s surrounded by vineyards, everything’s…green. They call it the ancient gateway to the Rhône Valley. They’ve been making wine there since Roman times. Am I talking too much? No, not at all. ( Chuckles ) ( Sniffs ) The vineyards are so steep they can’t get tractors up there, so they use horses. Still, to this day. Do you get that, um… that meaty… it’s almost bloody flavor? The soil is all iron oxide and manganese. You can taste it in the glass, right?
Next Fring admits that he brought a 1978 Pere Anselme Côte-Rôtie. As part of the closure of this scene, he is also shown a bottle of special Guigal. Nothing happens in this TV show by accident o I am sure that these unopened wines will come up pater. Particularly that the scene ends with a long shot of the Cote Rotie La Landonne.
Gus attempts to smooth things over with the cartel while Mike ties up loose ends.