89-91 / 100 Robert Parker The 2016 Gevrey-Chambertin Villages, which was not touched by the frost, has a perfumed nose, the fruit here a shade darker than the Clos du Château, quite focused with a hint leafiness. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-grain tannin and well-judged acidity, an elegant and finessed village cru with a pretty, pointed finish. This is one of the best village crus that I have encountered from Rousseau in recent years.
Cyrille Rousseau is rapidly becoming one of my favorite people to meet in Burgundy. She looks so young that I would be amazed if she had ever bought an alcoholic drink without being asked for ID. Yet she already has a wealth of experience under her belt, having previosly worked in New Zealand (see last year’s report for details), and she is now firmly embedded within the Rousseau domaine, the next generation after the late Charles Rousseau and her father Eric. Moreover, discussing the wines with Cyrille, she already seems to be familiar with their enviable array of parcels, their nuances and strengths, their foibles. During our conversation she told me how in Les Cazetiers new vines have been planted in a parcel previously occupied by 80-year-old vines whose productivity was waning. Likewise, Ruchottes-Chambertin (her favorite vineyard…she admitted that her “heart” was in Ruchottes) saw its oldest vines uprooted to maintain a constant rotation of new and old stock. There is discrete expansion: a new plot in Les Crapiots that has recently been planted on fallow land, though this will be blended into the village cru. The domaine was affected by the frost, albeit less severely than other growers, as the damage was concentrated in Chambertin, where two-thirds was lost, and also in Clos Saint-Jacques. I asked what she did on that fateful day. “Oh, I went away for four days,” she replied laughing. She was not abandoning ship, however. “It was in the middle of week. I had a trip to Alsace planned anyway, and there is nothing you can do. So, I went up there for four days, and then when I came back the following Monday, I inspected all the vineyards. The vines continue to be tended by our vineyard workers, but with frost you just have to wait. Afterward, the vines were dormant for three weeks, but then they started to regrow very quickly, too quickly. There were many small green leaves sprouting on the vine, and this made treating for mildew pressure difficult. It is the first time that we have ever had to treat the vines for mildew, because it would keep attacking these [untreated] new leaves.” Rousseau commenced the harvest on 23 September and picked over the following eight or nine days. As usual, there is just a small stem addition, around 10%, though this is more to enhance drainage in the vat rather than for any stylistic purpose. The wines will be bottled next March or April. It was predictably a very beautiful set of wines from Rousseau in 2016, a vintage that Cyrille opined is better than 2015, or more accurately, appeals to her own predilection for “classic” Burgundy. The highlights include a sublime interpretation of Ruchottes-Chambertin, probably the best that I tasted compared to Roumier and Mugneret-Gibourg, vines that escaped the frost, unlike Mugneret’s located on the lower parcel. Then this year, there is no question in my mind that their Clos de Bèze has the upper hand over the Chambertin. Can that be attributed to the latter being two-thirds decimated by the frost? Cyrille was skeptical about its effect, but I maintain that it does sap the energy of the vine, the collective energy of the vineyard. The Clos de Bèze showed more weight and fruit intensity, delivered the structure one expects on the finish. Among the premier crus, I was smitten by the Lavaux Saint-Jacques that frankly is not far behind the more illustrious Clos Saint-Jacques. It will be interesting to taste these side-by-side in five or six years. Overall, this was a supremely gifted set of 2016s from Rousseau, maybe not as consistent as a benevolent, more benign year like 2015, and yet their range is bejewelled with typically refined, elegant, complex and delicious wines that epitomize everything great about red burgundy. 234, The Wine Advocate
88-91 / 100 Allen Meadow This is much more deeply pitched and pungently earth with its array of very fresh red and dark berries that carry whiffs of earth and the sauvage. The rich, round and attractively textured medium-bodied flavors possess better depth and persistence as well as notably better underlying material. Note that this well-made effort is going to require at least a few years of patience first. https://www.burghound.com/tnsearch/index.php?id=264962
