Wine Advisor
Armand Rousseau, Charmes Chambertin Grand Cru 2012
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Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2012 Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru has an exquisite bouquet with fragrant wild strawberry, bergamot and forest floor that simmers with tension, subtle touches of cassis unfolding in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with crisp, slightly chalky tannins, over a layer of effervescent candied fruit – mandarin and apricot enriching the finish. This is such a pretty thing, surely destined to be irresistible in its youth. The trajectory of Armand Rousseau has been phenomenal in recent years. In particular, after the beatified 2005 vintages, the most revered Gevrey-Chambertin producer suddenly found itself amongst the Holy Grail, one whose wines are sought and fought over from London to New York to Hong Kong and everywhere in between. As I have written before, Rousseau is one of my benchmark producers as no doubt it is for many. Rousseau has been the source of some of the greatest wines I have ever consumed: just peruse my write-up of a Ruchottes-Chambertin vertical in December’s issue as evidence. At the same time, part of my appreciation for Rousseau is that they do not try to cover up their wines that can occasionally wear their frailties on their sleeves. This imbues Rousseau’s wines with a sense of honesty and clarity, a reflection of a vineyard buffeted and enhanced by the vagaries of a capricious growing season from one year to the next. If you are lucky enough to participate in a vertical of Rousseau’s wines, then you experience the peaks and troughs, but never a bottle that tries to be something it was not born to be. I had already heard whispers of how good Rousseau’s 2012s were before my arrival and sure enough, tasting through their enviable portfolio, there are a clutch of quite brilliant wines destined to be fought over when allocations are released. And at the same time, I would argue that it is not as consistent as say 2005 or 2010, but would agree with winemaker Frederic Robert that they constitute a step up from the 2011s that I tasted six months earlier. “It was a quite difficult flowering because of the rain and cold,” Frederic told me. “Even July was cold and rainy. Then we had 6 or 7 weeks of sun from August. We started to pick on 20 September. We lost about 20% of the harvest mainly because of flowering and sorting, but we had to do less sorting than 2013. We de-stemmed around 90% of the crop and did a little chaptalization, but only by a very small amount. The old vines produced small grapes. We will bottle in July and so we will rack them one more time in March.” When I asked whether the 2012s reminded him of any other vintage, Frederic replied that perhaps the 2010 would make a good comparison, albeit without the same tannic structure. I would agree with this observation. Rousseau’s 2012 do err more towards the masculine side, unlike the more voluptuous 2009s, yet unlike 2011 there is more freshness, tension and vigor. Moreover, I cannot recall tasting Rousseau’s wines from barrel, whereby the individuality of each vineyard is articulated with such clarity. This year, each village, premier or grand cru is true to their respective characteristics, the hand of the winemaker much smaller than that of the vineyard. Importer: Frederic Wildman & Sons, New York, NY; tel. (212) 355-0700 and through merchants in UK including Howard Ripley.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
Tasted blind at the annual "Burgfest" tasting in Beaune. The 2012 Charmes Chambertin Grand Cru from Domaine Armand Rousseau has a disjointed nose at first, showing some signs of reduction, although it does coalesce in the glass and offer crushed strawberry and red plum notes, deeply infused with forest floor and mushroom aromas. The palate is medium-bodied with a pastille-like entry, the acidity nicely judged with just a dab of spice towards the finish. It is a charming Charmes-Chambertin, but one that here falls short of my expectations out of barrel, whereas other Rousseau 2012s excel. Possibly this is suffering a dumb phase? I'll hang that question mark against my score.
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
The 2012 Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru has a lovely bouquet with floral, rose petal and iris flower scents percolating through the ripe red fruit, superb delineation and focus, with hints of bay leaf and thyme in the background. The palate is medium-bodied with gentle grip, by no means powerful, though unequivocally tensile with a lightly spiced, quite tender finish. Impressive length and overall, a very commendable wine for the vintage.
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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