Domaine Armand Rousseau, Chambertin - Clos De Bèze 2015

98-100 / 100 Robert Parker
The 2015 Chambertin Clos de Bèze Grand Cru was served after the Chambertin this year. That's often a sign of which wine they think might have the edge that year, since it is interchangeable, depending on how the wind blows. It has a deeper, perhaps even more penetrating bouquet than the 2015 Chambertin: scents of raspberry preserve, red plum, crushed stone and incense that gain intensity with seemingly every swirl of the glass. The palate has a sorbet-like freshness on the entry, veins of blood orange, white pepper, tangy marmalade infusing the black and red fruit, with impressive structure and precision on the finish. Could a Clos-de-Bèze be any better from barrel? Answer: No. This year I had the pleasure of Eric Rousseau's daughter Cyrielle escorting me through the barrels at the domaine. Cyrielle graduated with a degree in geology before passing her oenology studies, subsequently working for a retailer in Australia and wineries in New Zealand, and at Adelsheim in Oregon. I cheekily asked whether her colleagues knew she was a scion of the Rousseau dynasty and consequently inundated with requests for a direct allocation of Chambertin? Wisely she kept her background discrete. We had quite a long discussion about New World Pinot Noir during the tasting, which was beneficial, since some of the barrel samples took a while to open. She told me that some parcels of vine suffered powdery mildew pressure as normal in a warm vintage, but they were able to combat this effectively. “Powdery mildew is preferable to rot in wet conditions, because you can do nothing to prevent that,” she remarked. At Domaine Rousseau they started picking early on 3 September, around the same time as across the road at Domaine Claude Dugat, putting down the secateurs six days later. The fermentation was normal and she said that they did not do anything different compared to other years. One thing that was true: the barrel samples were at different stages of their evolution and so I had to take this into account, which is why I sauntered through at a leisurely pace. The early picked wines had tremendous freshness and vitality to them. The fruit profile is certainly towards red, as is common with Armand Rousseau, whereas other growers had more black fruit, due to the concentration of the fruit vis-à-vis later picking dates. These are elegant wines, nuanced, mercurial and beautifully balanced, generally mineral-driven with exceptional freshness and energy—leitmotifs of the best 2015s that I tasted. Standouts include a quite sensational and live-wire Ruchottes-Chambertin "Clos des Ruchottes" and a Chambertin Clos-de-Bèze, one of the standouts of the 2015 vintage. Naturally, demand will outstrip supply several times, but those fortunate to get their mitts on one of Rousseau's 2015s will be in for a treat. What d'ya mean, you knew that already? Once the tasting had been finished, Cyrielle was greeted by the family's dog, the aptly named "Pinot," gathering the hound in her arms for a big hug. She loves her dog just as much as wine lovers are going to love Rousseau's 2015s.
228, The Wine Advocate

18.5 / 20 Jancis Robinson
100% new oak. Clos de Bèze keeps the oak flavour a bit longer so Cyrielle serves it after the Chambertin. Sample from the François Frères barrel: Much more dramatic and pushy on the nose than the Chambertin. Ripe purple fruits. Very sweet and brazen. Sample from the Rousseau barrel: Much better behaved and savoury. Easier to see the fruit. Good savour on the end. Opulent but not pushy.
https://www.jancisrobinson.com/tastings/search?keywords=Ar..

95-98 / 100 Allen Meadow
Once again the wood treatment is in evidence but it's by no means intrusive as it easily allows for the clear expression of the plum, black cherry, lavender, violet and tea aromas. The exceptionally rich and impressively dense broad-shouldered flavors also exhibit excellent minerality and almost as much power on the massively long finish. As is usually the case when one compares these two wines, this is finer and offers a distinctly different expression. The Bèze typically shows a bit better and more completely young and then after 15 to 20 years the Chambertin often surpasses it. Which you will like better is often very much a question of preference but in 2015 they appear, at least at this very early stage, to be qualitatively similar. Time will of course tell but it would be fair to observe that they both possess enormous development potential.
https://www.burghound.com/tnsearch/index.php?id=258871