The 2015 Chambertin Grand Cru from Domaine Armand Rousseau is an unequivocal highlight of the vintage with its heady aroma of black fruits, blood orange, cocoa nib, cedar and spice. The palate is extraordinarily complex and interweaves decadently rich fruit, fine tannins and juicy acidity with exceptional deftness of touch.
Reviews:
- Vinous: Dark, bright red with ruby highlights. Crushed black cherry, raspberry and spice aromas are lifted by a pungent floral topnote–“very ripe for this wine,” notes Rousseau. At once utterly young and almost exotic, conveying extraordinary intensity and layered texture to its slightly high-toned flavors of raspberry, cherry, pomegranate, licorice and spices. An element of menthol reserve contributes to the wine’s impression of brooding energy. Finishes with noble, seamless tannins and slowly mounting, explosive palate-staining length. Almost painful and almost perfect.
- Burghound: Here too there is just enough oak to mention but once again it’s not really enough to impair the purity of the distinctly cool and ultra-spicy red currant, underbrush, sandalwood, lilac and plenty of earth aromas. The rich, intense and overtly muscular big-bodied flavors possess a similar level of minerality that is borderline pungent and it informs the explosively long, firm and very serious finish. This notably powerful, but not really austere effort, displays magnificent potential and if it develops its usual degree of complexity over time it should merit the upper end of my projected range. But as structured and firm as it is, I suspect that this will drink well after only 6 to 8 years of age thanks to the incredible abundance of dry extract.
Producer Information
Domaine Armand Rousseau is a highly regarded and critically lauded wine producer based in the village of Gevrey-Chambertin, in the northern Côte de Nuits. Arguably iconic in status, Armand Rousseau is one of Burgundy’s oldest and most revered family-run domains. It holds many grand cru plots in Gevrey-Chambertin as well as part of the much sought-after premier cru vineyard Clos Saint-Jacques.Founded at the start of the 20th Century by Gevrey native Armand Rousseau, the domaine initially owned small plots of vines throughout Gevrey-Chambertin. Over the next 100 years under both Armand Rousseau and his son Charles, who took over after the death of his father in 1959, the Domaine acquired various grand cru vineyards in Charmes-, Mazis- (labeled “Mazy” by the domaine) and Mazoyères-Chambertin, culminating in a plot in Le Chambertin itself in 1994.
