Wine Advisor
Armand Rousseau, Chambertin Grand Cru 1991
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Reviewed by: William Kelley
The 1991 Chambertin Grand Cru is drinking beautifully, wafting from the glass with aromas of dark berries, forest floor, sweet spices, peonies, orange rind and smoked meats. Full-bodied, velvety and seamless, with fine depth at the core, melting tannins and lively acids, it concludes with a long, sapid finish. Beautifully integrated and fully mature, it's showing very well today.
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
The 1991 Chambertin is almost black. After Comte de Vogue's Musigny-Vieilles Vignes, it is the darkest-colored grand cru red burgundy of the vintage. It displays a lead pencil, Mouton-like element in the bouquet, gobs of rich, sweet, black-raspberry fruit, plenty of smoky, toasty new oak, and remarkable concentration and length. A quintessential Chambertin, it makes a mockery of all the watery, vapid wines priced at over $100 a bottle that emerge from this grand cru vineyard. Super-rich, yet young and unevolved, this is a Chambertin to drink from the turn of the century through the first two decades of the next millennium. Rousseau, one of the reference points for great burgundy, appears to have made 1991s that are even richer and more profound than his 1990s. His production was one-half of normal, so these wines will be difficult to find. Rousseau normally excels with his three top cuvees - Gevrey-Chambertin-Clos St.-Jacques, Chambertin-Clos de Beze, and Chambertin, but the lower level wines often lack concentration and intensity. That is not the case in 1991. Kudos to Rousseau for producing his finest portfolio of wines in over two decades! Importer: Frederick Wildman & Co., New York, NY.
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
Next to the Clos de Bèze, the 1991 Chambertin comes across as incredibly dense with tons of pure power and brawn. A masculine wine, the Chambertin has enough going on to reward readers for another 15-20 years. At times almost overwhelmingly virile while at other much sweeter, the 1991 is a wine that plays off the push and pull of those contrasts with tremendous eloquence. There is a level of inner sweetness that makes me think the 1991 might develop into an even more nuanced wine with more time in bottle. Although a bit slow out of the gate, the Chambertin gets better and better with time in the glass.
About the Producer
Domaine Armand Rousseau Pere et Fils was founded in the early 20th century by Armand Rousseau when he was only 18 years old and inherited the vineyard from his father. Armand Rousseau was born into a family of small landowners, and his family members were mostly engaged in wine-related occupations, such as grape farmers, coopers and wine merchants. After Armand married in 1909, he acquired additional vineyards and estate. The property is set around a church built in the 13th century, and the property includes a house, storeroom and wine cellar. When he first entered the wine business, Armand sold wine in bulk to local distributors. After that, Armand successively purchased a batch of new vineyards, such as the plot in Charmes-Chambertin in 1919 and the Clos de la Roche in 1920. The plot, that is, since then, on the advice of Raymond Baudoin (founder of the magazine Revue des Vins de France), Oman decided to bottle and sell its own fine wines, especially for restaurants and wine lovers . Armand Rousseau's wine business is booming, and at the same time he is also expanding the scale of the winery, especially he has also successively purchased many famous vineyards, such as the purchase of Mazy-Chambertin in 1937. Garden, purchased in 1940 Mazoyeres-Chambertin garden (Mazoyeres-Chambertin). At present, the winery has a total vineyard area of 14.1 hectares, of which 2.21 hectares are village-level vineyards, 3.48 hectares are first-class vineyards, and 8.41 hectares are AOC-classified vineyards. The average age of the vines is 40 to 45 years old, the grape variety is 100% Pinot Noir, and the planting density is 11,000 vines per hectare. In 1945, Armand Rousseau's son, Charles Rousseau, joined his father in wine studies after studying wine studies. In 1959, Armand Rousseau tragically passed away in a car accident, and Charlie Rousseau took the responsibilities alone and supported the development of the entire winery. Armand Rousseau has a very amazing language talent, he can communicate with others fluently in English and German, therefore, he decided to vigorously expand the wine export business, the business scope expanded rapidly from the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland to the whole of Europe, followed by Countries such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Brazil. In 1982, Eric Rousseau, the son of Charles Rousseau, injected new vitality into the development of the winery. In terms of vineyard management, Eric has introduced new technologies, such as controlling grape yield and improving fruit quality through green harvesting (Green Harvest) and leaf pruning, and using almost no pesticides or chemicals in the vineyard Substances are used to protect the soil and guide the winery to develop in an organic direction. At the same time, he also respects traditional winemaking techniques and tries his best to reduce manual intervention in the winemaking process. In 2014, Cyrielle Rousseau, Eric's daughter, joined the winery to jointly manage the winery. Seriller learned foreign winemaking techniques and accumulated rich experience in cooperation with wine merchants. With the joint efforts of four generations of the Rousseau family, the quality of the wines produced by Aman Rousseau has been very stable and widely recognized by consumers. The winery produces many grand cru wines, such as Domaine Armand Rousseau Pere et Fils Chambertin Clos de Beze Grand Cru, Cote de Nuits, France. Made from the finest Pinot Noir grapes, with fruity aromas of raspberries and cherries, with hints of leather, cinnamon and dark chocolate, the palate reveals ripe red fruit flavours, with a firm and supple mouthfeel with an impressive structure, with a persistent and wonderful finish. It has won over 95 points from well-known wine critics such as Robert Parker Team and Wine Spectator for many years.
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