Domaine Armand Rousseau Gevrey-Chambertin Lavaux St. Jacques Premier Cru 2014
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Lavaux St Jacques sits directly adjacent to the Clos St Jacques vineyard. Domaine Armand Rousseau owns 3 acres of this Premiere Cru vineyard which sits in relatively flat terrain with exposure slightly to the southeast. Vines average 50 years old.
Grapes are meticulously sorted as they arrive in the winery. Following a cool maceration lasting 5-7 days the must travels by gravity into barrel where it will stay for the entire vinification process lasting typically 18-24 months. Each Armand Rousseau wine is blended unfiltered.
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Wine Spectator
Walks a fine line between richness and lively structure, which provides a taut matrix for the cherry, currant, floral and stone flavors. Shows overall poise and balance, with a long, detailed finish. Best from 2020 through 2035.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Tasted blind at the Burgfest 2014 tasting, the 2014 Gevrey Chambertin 1er Cru Lavaux St Jacques has a comparatively showy and exotic bouquet, perhaps with a longer skin maceration than its peers, replete with saturated red cherry fruit and kirsch. A bit of a show-off (which is something I would not normally ascribe to Rousseau—these words written prior to knowing its identity). The palate is medium-bodied with sappy black fruit, a gentle grip in the mouth and a smooth texture. For me, it just lacks some personality and is steered more by the winemaking ideology than the terroir, a little generic compared to others in the flight. This is a capable wine but I would have wanted more.
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Each of the domaine’s prestigious holdings is in Gevrey Chambertin, with the exception of Grand Cru Clos de la Roche in Morey-St. Denis. The domaine controls a remarkable 8 hectares of Grand Crus, including 6.25 acres in Chambertin and 3.45 in Clos de Bèze. Rousseau owns 5.5 acres in the famed Premier Cru Clos St. Jacques, which accounts for 40% of the total acreage and 100% of the 2.5-acre monopole, Grand Cru Clos des Ruchottes.
In August 2012, following the purchase of Chateau de Gevrey-Chambertin’s vineyards by its new Chinese owner, Louis Ng Chi-sing, chief operating officer at SJM Holdings in Macau, its management was entrusted to Eric Rousseau of Domaine Rousseau. The five-acre property, which includes the Chateau, is comprised of small plots of the grand cru and premier cru ‘Chambertin’ vineyards, while the balance is Gevrey-Chambertin AOC.
Eric Rousseau is adamant that yields should be severely limited to promote faithful expression of the individual vineyard. The wines age in barrel for 18 months before bottling. Rousseau releases its wines exactly two years after the vintage.
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.”
This small village is home to the Grands Crus in the farthest northerly stretches of Côte de Nuits and is famous for some of the deepest and firmest Burgundian Pinot Noir.
Gevrey boasts nine Grands Crus, the best of which are arguably Le Chambertin and Chambertin-Clos de Bèze. As with all of the fragmented vineyards of Burgundy, it isn’t easy to differentiate between the two, which are situated adjacent with Clos de Bèze slightly further up the hill than Le Chambertin. Clos de Bèze has a shallower soil and if you’re really counting, may produce wines less intense but more likely to charm. Some compare Le Chambertin in both power and plentitude only to the prized Romanée-Conti Grand Cru farther south in Vosne-Romanée.
Two other Grands Crus vineyards, Mazis-Chambertin (also written Mazy-) and Latricières-Chambertin command almost as much regard as Le Chambertin and Chambertin-Clos de Bèze. The upper part of Mazy, called Les Mazis Haut is the best and Latricières-Chambertin offers an abundance of juicy fruit and a silky texture in the warmer vintages.
Other Grands Crus are Ruchottes-Chambertin, Charmes-Chambertin, Mazoyères-Chambertin, Griotte-Chambertin and Chapelle-Chambertin.
The most respected Pinot Noir wines from Gevrey-Chambertin are robust and powerful but at the same time, velvety and expressive: black fruit, black liquorice and chocolate come into play. After some time in the bottle, the wines are harmonious with bright and sometimes candied fruit, and aromas of musk, truffle and forest floor. These have staying power.