About
Producer note: Eric Rousseau's daughter Cyrielle, who is gradually assuming control of day-to-day operations and oversaw the recent expansion of the cuverie, briefly described the 2020 growing season much as she did in 2019 as "yet another one that was so hot and dry that we again thought, wrongly as it turned out, that we would have baked fruit and heavy wines. Happily, despite the heat and drought-like conditions, the vines didn't really suffer much, or at least not enough to shut down their photosynthetic processes. These conditions also keep disease pressure at bay so the fruit couldn't have been any cleaner and the only sorting required was to eliminate a few sunburned berries. We chose to begin picking on the 24th of August, which is almost three weeks before we began in 2019! We continued picking through to the 1st of September and while we had little in the way of sorting losses, there wasn't much juice in the berries as yields were down around 33%, which is to say that they varied between 25 and 28 hl/ha. Potential alcohols were varied as they ranged from a low of 13% to a high of almost 15%. The vinifications were also extremely varied as a few wines did not finish until mid-November, which means that some of them fermented for almost 2 ¼ months! Once we barreled down the wines, they didn't seem to have much personality and it wasn't clear in what direction they might go over time. However, I'm am both happy and relieved to say that they have become much more interesting each month and perhaps their most prominent characteristic is just how energetic they are. Even though they are impressively concentrated and markedly structured, they are also refreshing, and you just feel like drinking them. Importantly, they are also very well-balanced and should age accordingly." I agree with Mlle Rousseau's take on her wines as they are not only excellent across the board but several of them are among the very best that the 2020 vintage has to offer. As to the domaine's 2019s, four of which are revisited below, were bottled in March 2021. As I reported previously, the domaine is now using bottles where the bottom of it is embossed with the name of the domaine.
Expert Reviews
- AM
- 96
Burghound
Here too there is just enough wood to warrant mentioning framing the exceptionally spicy red berry fruit and floral-suffused aromas. There is fine density to the sleekly muscular and intense flavors that are blessed with fine mid-palate concentration on the tightly wound and sneaky long finish that is both balanced and notably firm, and which should enable this to evolve and improve for at least two decades. There is a hint of warmth but it's not enough to really detract from the overall sense of harmony. In a word, impressive.
Shipping Info