Tasted in Gevrey-Chambertin with Nicolas Rossignol, 25 July 2019.
Domaine Rossignol-Trapet
4 Rue de la Petite Issue
21220 Gevrey-Chambertin
Tel: +33 3 80 51 87 26
www.rossignol-trapet.com
Nicolas on 2019:
“This year we had some very hot days in February – relatively – after that we had a much colder time in April when frost was a worry – we were really at the limit of damage. After it was cool in May, even June, so the flowering happened quite late. I’m currently expecting to harvest between 15th and 20th of September – of course it depends on the weather. The grapes are nice but the heat is tough, we even have some sunburn, but we leave the leaves on the sunny side and remove many on the northern aspect of the vines, both for aeration and to aid picking.”
Nicolas on 2018:
“2018 started with a Spring that was warm and wet, so was very complicated for organic farming, but there was nice and dry weather essentially for the rest of the summer. 2018 was an early harvest after that hot weather. It’s a vintage like 2003 or 2009, no triage, but we had to do some green harvesting as we also did in 2017. We started Tuesday 4th September finished the 11th September. The volume was good as we suffered no hail or frost. The wines have been in barrel since October with no racking since then. The first cuvées, we will taste in January after 14 months before bottling, the grand crus will wait for almost 20 months…
“2018 – it is quite nice (smile!) There’s good freshness. We used 50% whole clusters for the whole range in 2018, but without pigeage – we normally use one to two-thirds stems. The level of sugar was high, so the fermentation of three cuvées was more difficult; we had lots of in-tact berries after the yeasts were exhausted, so there was some more sugar liberated after pressing – it needed a few weeks for that to fade and we’d prefer not to have that.”
The wines…
I really enjoyed this selection of wines – look no further than the Gevrey VV, the fabulous Petite Chapelle and the, likely, grandiose Latricières!
This villages Gevrey is made from old vines of 60. It will have 15% new oak
So much colour! Some smell of gas and dark, vibrant fruit. Supple, concentrated, dark, licorice, lingering. Ooh! Great stuff.
2018 Beaune 1er Teurons
From the high slopes near Cras, ‘the wine’s more like a Cras than a Teurons!’ The vines almost touching the cuverie of JC Rateau.
A little lighter colour. A little fresher and redder fruit on this nose. Ooh, not as broad or deep as the Gevrey, but a lovely airy, mouth-watering complexion to this wine, a little attractive vibration of fruit in the finish too. Lovely.
2018 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cherbaudes
Hmm, a width of forward, floral-infused, red fruit. Supple, wide, layers of super flavour – ripe raspberry – already so delicious…
Richer, deeper soil with more clay than the last wine. Since 2003, no pigeage with this wine. ‘In dry vintages like 2017 & 2018 the clay here holds on very well to the moisture.’ None of the wines that followed the vv have been so deeply coloured – so far.
A deeper nose, more concentrated, floral. So deep a well of flavour, slightly more mineral and structural. Gorgeous, simply gorgeous finishing, a bright beacon of pure flavour – bravo!
2018 Latricières-Chambertin
Quite a cold area under the forest so normally the last parcel to be harvested. 0.75 hectares right in the centre of the vineyard. ‘Normally we finish the harvest here.’
Whoo! – Pungent (in a great way) rose blossom. A palate that fills the mouth, a supple wine, structured, faintly tannic, faintly saline – I’m sure that it’s not showing everything yet, but what it’s showing is so darn good – potentially great!
2018 Chapelle-Chambertin
For us a warmer, more sunny area, closer to the rock. Only about 40cm of soil before the rock, but the vines are old – from the 1920s – and didn’t suffer from the dryness. We are only domaine with vines in both Gemeaux and Les Chapelle, and the soils are different – the soil is much deeper in Gemeaux.
A wider nose, with a slight firework reduction, a saline angle to this nose. Supple, more concentrated, not quite liqueur, but a weight of very fine flavour. Tighter to start, wow to finish. An almost chewy density and persistence to finish – a great finish. The Latricières is more complete today, but this has more, more from the middle onwards.
2018 Chambertin
A plot right in the middle of Chambertin, which takes in the full rows – bottom to top.
A more composed nose, of depth, of complexity, and of growing saline freshness. Broad, but with a little more tannin; some drag to the texture. Deep-flavoured, becoming more mineral in the finish. There is more presence to this wine than those that preceded it – really super.
And to finish:
2017 Chambertin
Bottled in May
A big nose of floral freshness. Big in the mouth too – more open, with a depth of flavour that reflects the nose. A super finishing complexity – ooh, that’s good! So long, this is really good, even after the 18… excellent wine!