Wine Advisor
Armand Rousseau, Charmes Chambertin Grand Cru 2015
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2015 Charmes Chambertin Grand Cru offers a mixture of red and black fruit on the nose, later orange rind and hints of Seville orange marmalade coming forth, though generally remaining more backward compared to recent vintages. The palate is medium-bodied with succulent ripe tannin, quite structured and perhaps a little Mazis-Chambertin in style. It is endowed with plenty of crunchy black and red fruit developing towards the finish with a potent spiciness that lingers in the mouth. This is a vivacious Charmes-Chambertin even if, to be honest, it is surpassed by the other grand crus in this vintage.
Reviewed by: William Kelley
The 2015 Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru offers up a direct bouquet of red cherry and raspberry, its pure tones mingling with subtle notions of dried flowers and grilled meat. On the palate, the wine is supple, open-knit and expansive, certainly charming, though with some substance at the core too, its acid bright and tannins polished. This may not be the domaine's "cheval de bataille," as the French expression goes, but it is an attractive wine.
Reviewed by: William Kelley
Tasted blind, the 2015 Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru displays a very attractive and expressive bouquet of red berries, cherries, rich loamy soil, peony and raw cocoa, subtly framed by some cedary, recently used oak. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, ample and juicy, with a supple attack, an open-knit palate but a disappointingly firm, compact—even somewhat drying—finish. While in February this performed quite modestly given its pedigree and appellation, my score when tasting blind was a few points lower.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2015 Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru has a well-defined nose of morello cherry and crushed strawberry suffused with rose petals; it is one of the finest bouquets in this peer group flight, although it fails to articulate the promise it demonstrated in barrel. The medium-bodied palate offers supple tannin, crisp acidity, good focus and detail and a fine seam of mineralité on the finish. It just lacks a bit of substance and doesn’t quite possess the persistence you expect. Tasted blind at the annual Burgfest tasting.
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
Healthy deep medium red. Medicinal red cherry, dried rose and a whiff of iron on the captivating nose. Sweeter and silkier than the foregoing premier crus, offering considerable charm to its dark cherry and floral flavors. Finishes with broad, dusty tannins, lovely length and seductive rose petal lift.
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
Sadly, the 2015 Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru was one of the few casualties of this Rousseau tasting, and I felt this bottle was slightly oxidised.
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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Package Size
1 x 75cl
