Winemaker Notes
A bright and deep red color enlightened with notes of violet. An expressive nose with aromas of red fruit and cherries, and only a discrete touch of oak The palate shows supple tannins, with good fruit and freshness, and an elegant finish.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2017 Saint Romain Rouge is also terrific, showing ripe red and black raspberry, charcoal, forest floor, violets, and sappy flower aromas and flavors. Medium-bodied, juicy, and lively on the palate, it has a core of sweet fruit, good acidity, and impressive length. It’s going to be even better with a year in bottle and keep through 2029.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2017 Alain Gras Saint-Romain Rouge is all about elegance. TASTING NOTES: This is a stylish wine with plenty of delicious fruit. Enjoy its lovely ripe red fruit aromas and flavors with pan-seared salmon fillets. (Tasted: May 6, 2019, San Francisco, CA)
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
A classic source of exceptional Chardonnay as well as Pinot Noir, the Côte de Beaune makes up the southern half of the Côte d’Or. Its principal wine-producing villages are Pernand-Vergelesses, Aloxe-Corton, Beaune, Pommard, Volnay, Meursault, Puligny-Montrachet and Chassagne-Montrachet.
The area is named for its own important town of Beaune, which is essentially the center of the Burgundy wine business and where many negociants center their work. Hospices de Beaune, the annual wine auction, is based here as well.