Tasted in Romanèche-Thorins with Richard Rottiers, 01 February 2021.

Domaine Richard Rottiers
La Sambinerie
71570 Romanèche-Thorins
Tel: +33 6 63 38 16 35
www.domainerichardrottiers.com
More reports for Domaine Richard Rottiers

Richard on 2019:
“I lost nearly 70% to the frost, as pretty much most of my vines are bottom of the hills – there had been rain and the vines were under a fog at -3°C – any chance that the frost-damage could have been avoided was lost when the direct sun broke through the mist. I’ve got the hail-nets here on the lower slopes of the appellation but they make no difference with frost! In the end, no more than 15 hl/ha for the domaine. Fortunately, all my fermentations went without a hitch. Due to the frost-affected volumes I needed to make an early bottling of my 2020 Beaujolais Villages so that there was some wine to sell.”

The wines…

Another difficult year in terms of yield, but the drinkability of the wines shines through.

2020 Beaujolais Villages La Sambinerie
Elevage part barrel, part tank. Vines behind the house – here there’s more clay in the soil.
Medium, medium-plus colour. A forward and vibrant nose – really fruity – very inviting. Round, supple – layers of classically Beaujolais fruit. This is very tasty BJV – excellent wine

2019 Brouilly
Labelled Richard Rottiers not Domaine Richard Rottiers as it’s a contract – these vines are in conversion to organic. Under Pierreux – lots of frost here too – the vines didn’t reach the same level of maturity as other non-frosted places – so the wines are lighter.
The nose is fresh and pure – it’s very attractive – what it isn’t is dark coloured and concentrated. Round in the mouth, actually quite silky – slowly forming a small grain of tannin – sometimes you find the grain, sometimes not. Very tasty – with wide layers of fresh red-fruited flavour – but not over-sweet in the vernacular of recent vintages. Just light, elegant, tasty wine.

2019 Moulin à Vent
The ‘assembly’ cuvée – all the vines of Richard that are organic – a bit of everything and quite representative of ‘frosted Moulin à Vent’ smiles Richard – ‘but it reminds me of older more floral vintages.’
A bit more depth of aroma – wider too. Extra depth to the texture here – and concentration too. Wide and mouth-watering – there’s a sneaky middle and finishing intensity here too. Excellent, tasty wine.

2019 Moulin à Vent Mortperay
The newish cuvée here – had 3 years, a purchase that was shared with François Parent. Lots of clay here, had since 2016 and will be organic this year. These are older vines – about 65-years-old – ‘they have more core’ says Richard.
The colour is similar to the last – medium-plus – but the nose is deeper and more concentrated. Bigger in the mouth – more concentrated here – a bit more tannin too – also delicious wine.

2019 Moulin à Vent Les Thorins
Contract, but Richard will also have a domaine version of this soon.
Completely different nose, extra silky and pure fruit – there was no frost here. Slowly there’s a floral aspect too – lovely! Mouth-filling – more concentration the tannin is there but ultra-fine and with virtually no grain. Beautifully finishing, then more floral and fresh – that’s really, really tasty – excellent wine – I love the easy, accessible delicious complexity.