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Uutiset
One of the greatest names in all of Burgundy, dating back to the 1930s when Armand was one of the first of five domaines to defy the negociants and bottle their own wine. The Rousseau name is synonymous with Gevrey-Chambertin; Armand passed the reins to Charles who on retirement passed control to his son Eric.
Once again subtle reduction pushes the underlying fruit to the background so I recommended decanting it for those of you who can't wait at least 5 years to try a bottle. There is even more size, weight and intensity to the velvety, powerful and opulent big-bodied flavors that possess an abundance of palate soaking dry extract that pushes the otherwise tightly coiled tannins to the background on the massively long coffee-inflected finish that really fans out as it sits on the palate. This is very firmly structured but actually a bit less austere than it usually is and thanks to the abundant dry extract might be approachable a bit sooner than usual too. In short, this brilliant effort is one of the greatest wines of the 2013 vintage. Score: 96 Points; Tasted: Jan 2016; Drink: 2035+; Issue: 61; Allen Meadows - Burghound.com
Viinin Kuvailu
The Story
Chambertin – Domaine Armand Rousseau
Chambertin gained a reputation from the patronage of Napoleon I, who is rumoured not to have drunk anything else and watered down his Chambertin with plenty of water. He favoured it at five to six years old and never drank more than half a bottle with a meal. When the ex-Emperor was exiled on St. Helena, he was forced to drink claret, since that was easier to ship to the isolated island.
The Rousseau Domaine was started at the beginning of the 20th century by Armand Rousseau who, at his majority, inherited several plots of vineyards in Gevrey Chambertin. The Domaine premises with the living house, the storing places, the cellars and the winery, are situated in the oldest part of the village, near the 13th century church.
From 1959, after Armand Rousseau's death, Charles Rousseau was at the head of a Domaine of 6 ha which he continued developing rapidly thanks to his great knowledge in oenology, and his experience, by acquiring new vineyards, especially in "Grands Crus" areas. He decided to turn principally towards export, and, after the USA where his father had already starting to sell his wines right after prohibition at the end of the 30's, he developed the exchanges first with Great-Britain, Germany, Switzerland, soon afterwards to all European countries, then to Canada, Australia, New-Zealand, Brazil, etc. and lastly Asia in the 1970’s.
His son Eric joined him at the beginning of the 1980's to take care more especially of the vineyards and the vinification. In 1993, Corinne, Charles's elder daughter, after many years of professional experience in export abroad and in France, came back to the Domaine and in her turn took in charge the commercial relationship with customers.
Domaine Armand Rousseau is the largest landowner of the Chambertin vineyard with a total of 5.3 acres. The 32 acres of Chambertin Grand Cru represent some of the finest and most storied Pinot Noir acreage on the planet and with all producers included typically produces less than 60,000 bottles. Chambertin is the beating heart of the red Grand Crus of the Côte d’Or sitting high on the hillside and bordered by Latricières-Chambertin to the south and Clos-de-Bèze to the north.
Vinification: Grapes are meticulously sorted as they arrive in the winery. Following a cool maceration the must travels by gravity into barrel where it will stay for the entire vinification process lasting typically 18-24 months. Each Armand Rousseau wine is blended unfiltered.
Burgundy writer Clive Coates refers to this Grand Cru as perhaps the finest red wine in the world. Always a tour de force, this wine has uncanny balance. It is very structured, dense, and powerful, it has firm, ripe tannins, yet it is not heavy. It has uncommonly long length on the palate.
Wine Information
After a winter of high rain fall the 2013 harvest was one of the latest. With regular light rain fall from mid-April and with a few spring like days, this was enough to bring the vines to bud.
May was wet with 17 days of rain and towards the end of the month the vegetation had hardly evolved. At this stage the 2013 vintage was already 15 to 18 days late in comparison to an average year.
The amount of work in the vines and passages in the rows was extremely high, the likes of which had never been seen before. The water table rose and there was heavy localised flooding.At the beginning of June a return of seasonal temperatures prompted growth on the vines with one new leaf growing every 2 days! The very first flowers were seen mid-June in the earlier flowering vineyards.
Flowering progressed quickly in the heat wave temperatures before a sudden stop from 19-20 June. The cool wet conditions in late June were unfavourable to the flower; coulure and millerandage were noted in numerous parcels. Thanks to three weeks of summer conditions, we finally saw a clear evolution of the vines: the grapes grew quickly in the Côtes.In the last ten days of July the bunches closed up and tightened up in the Côte de Nuits. The vintage was still 10 days late compared to the average. The grapes really only started to change colour from the 15th August. Progress was very slow as this will only happen if the temperatures are favourable and there is a lot of water! It was only when the rains returned in late August, early September that the grapes really changed colour.
In early September, the lack of sunshine and low temperatures did not help with the grapes’ maturity. Everything moved very slowly The harvest began on 1st October at the Domaine with the Gevrey-Chambertin Village vines. Harvesting conditions were complicated, but hard work allowed the gathering of the precious grapes into the winery. The harvest lasted 10 days with temperatures around 20 degrees and mixed weather.
After nearly a year of ageing, and a long and complicated malolactic fermentation, the wines have a beautiful structure, a fleshy fruitiness and are both greedy and fresh. The ageing in barrels must therefore continue to further nurture this late vintage of which we are very proud.
Vuosikerta 2013
HARVEST REPORT 2013 RED BURGUNDY
As far as weather was concerned, 2013 was not your typical year. It was at times cool, then hot with severe storms, followed by heavy rains hailstorms and then dry times with some occasional warm periods. It is a vintage that growers are calling the ultimate terroir vintage. Whenever you have a vintage that is not over ripe or alcoholic, or under ripe and very acid, the terroir can show through. This is not a vintage that lacked fruit or acidity or charm, it had all three, but it did not have a lot of power or concentration. This was true for many, and especially those who went for more production, or panicked and harvested too early resulting in the lowest sugars since 2008.
The average temperatures for the first 3 months of the year were 5.4oF cooler than normal. Temps were normal in April; May temps were below normal resulting in a very late flowering – the last time flowering took place that late was in 2008. May was also rainy, 34% above normal rainfall levels. It was rainy in June as well which resulted in uneven flowering with shatter and a bad fruit set. This trend (of bad and uneven fruit set) has been going on since 2010 with 2012 having a particularly poor fruit set.
In July the weather became warmer with periods or rain and a devastating hailstorm on July 23rd. Hardest hit were the communes of Pernand, Savigny les Beaune, Beaune, Pommard Volnay and Meursault. Some of the appellations were so badly hit that 100% of their crop was lost, this was particularly the case in Volnay and Pommard. Some of the same appellations were also hit in 2014 making it 4 years in a row with significant hail damage. The fact that this hailstorm came late in the vegetative cycle caused the wine to have a very dry harsh edge which covered up what little fruit there was to begin with.
The amount of sunlight hours was very low in the first 3 months of the year, 30% below normal. However, in July the amount of sunlight was plus 20 in July and August when it counted most. It did not get really hot during the normal summer months of July and August. There were 8 days in July that hit 86oF and above and only 3 in August with the latter half of the month quite cool. As far as rain was concerned, there was nothing more then a trace from August 1st to the 24th, and then nothing much again until September 9th when 1.02 inches fell. There were periods of rain after the 24th, but nothing serious enough to cause any problems with rot.
The fact that it was cool during the month of August prevented any recurrence of mildew and odium which were problems in early July. The cool weather, plus the late flowering, meant that veraison occurred on August 15th and harvest did not begin until the last week of September. Growers harvested in October for the first time in years – not since 2008. The quality of the fruit was far superior in the Côtes de Nuits, as has been the case for many years, other than in the truly great years where all regions were successful. The fact that full flowering was between June 23rd and the 26th made for a later harvest but possibly one of the reasons that the soils were so expressive in the juice.
I was very surprised at the quality of the 2013’s – the fact that they were very fresh and juicy and low in tannins and were not green. They should be drunk in their youth, but some of them were far greater than I could imagine. It is possible that certain appellations are superior to 2012 in the Côte de Nuits if there was careful attention paid to production or hand sorting. It is not a vintage without problematic wines but there is a lot to enjoy.
As far as pricing is concerned, most wines were the same price as in 2012; no one went down in price and a few growers went up. There is very little wine to be had and prices are high in bulk with so many small crops. I am afraid that the lesser appellations such as Bourgogne Rouge are going to go way up because that was the category that was affordable, the Grand Crus from the Côte de Nuits are only for millionaires now.
