2019 Domaine Armand Rousseau Ruchottes-Chambertin Grand Cru "Clos des Ruchottes"

Notes of red berries and plums mingle with hints of rose petals, peonies, grilled meats and forest floor in an inviting bouquet, introducing Rousseau's 2019 Ruchottes-Chambertin Grand Cru Clos des Ruchottes, a medium to full-bodied, bright and lively wine that's ethereal and perfumed, with a pretty core of fruit and a long, saline finish. Cyrielle Rousseau told me that she began picking on September 12, with yields averaging out at around 35 hectoliters per hectare, and that this is the second vintage to deliver maturities sufficiently elevated that the domaine didn't chaptalize a single cuvée. While Rousseau is never one to show all her cards, she did admit to liking 2019, saying that "they're wines that evoke emotions—more so than 2018." Deep, vibrant and concentrated, with ethereal bouquets and seamless structure, I'm inclined to think that—taken as a whole—this is in fact Rousseau's finest vintage since 2012 or even 2010, though of course the most successful cuvées in 2016 and 2015 might be cited to challenge that assertion in detail. In any case, it's a superb set of wines that will be worth tracking down even in today's overheated Burgundy market. While preparing this report, I also revisited some of the domaine's 2017s in my US office, and they showed well, too—even if the communal Gevrey-Chambertin struck me as rather more overtly oaky than I remembered it from barrel, or that one is indeed accustomed to expect at this stylistically restrained address. (WK)

The 2019 Clos des Ruchottes is a superb wine. The bouquet is already beautifully expressive, offering up scents of black cherries, sweet dark berries, grilled meats, chocolate, a superbly complex base of soil tones and a lovely framing of new oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, long and nicely structured out of the blocks, with ripe tannins, fine focus and grip and a long, complex and seamlessly balanced finish. This has a plush core of fruit waiting in the wings, but it will demand a fair bit of time in the cellar to allow the tannins to fall away before it starts to drink with generosity. Fine, fine juice. (Drink between 2032-2085)