Here the super fresh nose display black pinot fruit, floral and soft earth nuances. The delicious middle weight flavors are lush and relatively concentrated while exhibiting a lovely sense of punch and minerality on the seriously long and powerful finish. Definitely worth considering.
I am saddened to report that after a 3 year battle with cancer, Philippe Roty passed away in October 2015 at only 46 years of age. His younger brother Pierre-Jean, together with his mother and sister, will continue operating the domaine. I should note that Pierre-Jean has worked at the domaine all of his life and is intimately familiar with the vineyards and winemaking. Indeed his brother was sometimes hospitalized for long periods of time and during these times it was Pierre-Jean who made the decisions. In the 15 years that I knew him, Philippe was always unfailingly cheerful and polite, even when seriously ill. I will be among the many who will miss him. As to the 2014 vintage, Pierre-Jean succinctly noted that "the vines benefitted from a dry and warm spring that encouraged an early bud break and an abundant fruit set. There was a fine flowering with almost no shatter so we knew that yields were going to be at least good absent a climatic catastrophe.
Despite a poor summer the head start that the vines had, allowed them to bring the fruit to excellent maturity levels thanks to a near perfect September. We picked from the 17th to the 25th of September and there really wasn't much in the way of sorting required as we had no particular problems with the Suzukii infestation plus the fruit was both thick-skinned and quite clean. I think that 2014 is a really good if not genuinely great vintage that should provide for a lot of pleasure." Pierre-Jean noted that from 2014 forward all of the wines will be labeled as Joseph Roty as his brother's vines will be incorporated into those of the domaine. As such there will no longer be wines labeled as Philippe Roty though there will be in 2013. In another change, the old vines cuvée of the Champs Chenys was incorporated into the regular cuvée though he was careful to note that they may actually label it as a vieilles vignes; either way the point is that there will not be two cuvées in 2014 as there were in 2013 and before. Roty further noted that the 2013s, revisited below, were bottled in March and April 2015 without fining or filtration.
