Tasting the wines at Domaine Guy Roulot

The tasting during our Domaine Roulot visit proceeded on two tracks: a tasting of the 2012 whites followed by a tasting, some of it blind, of some older Roulot vintages. The 2012 tasting segment tasered terroir onto our palates while the free-form segment cemented Raj Parr's reputation as an accomplished blind taster with superior knowledge of Burgundy wines.

2012 Meursaults

The 2012 vintage had been abnormal with hail damage, mildew, odium, and heat combining for a 60% reduction in stock. We tasted through the full range of Meursault wines. Given that these wines were from the same vintage, and had been subjected to similar winemaking treatments, any differences should be attributable to terroir. And we did note such differences. There were consistent observations of fruitiness, minerality, and crisp acidity but texture, degree and shade of fruitiness, type of minerality, and florality varied depending on the source of the fruit. Our observations regarding these wines are captured in the table below.

                           Domaine Guy Roulot 2012 Meursault Wines

Classification	Climats/Lieux-Dits	Location	Characteristics
Bourgogne Blanc		Meursault	Citrus, mineral, acidity
Meursault		Slope south of valley	White fruit, citrus, floral, mineral, freshness
	Tillets	Highest on the slope and facing south	Floral, focused, step up in quality
	Vireuils	North of Tillets at slightly lower elevation; east-facing	White fruit, richness, crisp acidity, will age well
	Luchets	Further north and lower	Sweet white fruits, floral, citrus, chalky minerality, richness
	Narvaux	Adjacent to Tillets	Only 1 barrel made. Slight oakiness
	Meix Chavaux	North of Premier Crus but at same elevation	Lemon, stone, denser than wines preceding, mineral, sea shell
	Tessons	do.	First bottle deemed improper by Jean-Marc. Second bottle fresher fruit, minerality, crisp acidity. Balanced with a long finish
Premier Cru	Bouchères	Northernmost	White fruits, mineral, citrus
	Porusot	South of Bouchères	Tight minerality, sea shell, citrus, crisp acidity
	Charmes	On Puligny border; 70-year-old vines	4 barrels made. Big, rich fruit structure
	Perrieres		Big structure. Grand Cru quality. Pear. Weighty, mineral. Long finish

Pre-2012 Vintages

The first wine tasted in this segment was the 2011 Bourgogne Blanc. Jean-Marc said that this vintage had experienced early flowering and harvesting and there had been no attacks of odium or mildew. This wine had great texture and balance. Ron voiced that it was the best Bourgogne on the planet. The next  offering was the 2011 Tessons, a wine which revealed lemon, pear, and a distinct mineral note.

The next wine was offered blind. Tangerine, earthiness, and a chalky minerality. One of the things that we noted during this trip was that the winemakers all wanted to have Raj taste their wines blind. They constantly put him to the test and he consistently hit the mark or came pretty close. In this case he surmised 2010 Bouchères. It was 2009 Bouchères instead. Jean-Marc rapidly followed with another blind wine which Raj thought was a 2005 Tessons. It was. The third blind wine was ripe and open. 2003 Tillets said Raj. Right again. A tour de force of blind tasting in my opinion. The next wine offered had tangerine and honey on the nose and was very rich. I got lucky and tagged the vintage as 1989. It was a 1989 Bourgogne Blanc.

The final wine tasted was the 1992 Perrieres. Sweet tropical fruit to include pineapple. Ron described it as absolutely amazing. Jean-Marc called it "old Chardonnay." Raj said that this is one of his 10 best wines of all time.

A blockbuster end to a truly amazing tasting and a truly amazing day. Unfortunately the morrow did not attain this level of sustained, intense brilliance.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Winery visit with Jean-Marc Roulot of Domaine Guy Roulot

To taste a Domaine Roulot wine is to taste a sense of deep rootedness, fine and crystalline, and yet somehow open. Although subtly powerful, the wine never imposes itself before the taster has time to form his own reactions... For me, the subtlety and finesse of Jean-Marc's very feline wines fulfill the criteria for a legitimate work of art: conventions coexisting with freedom of access and interpretation.

Thus had Jonathan Nossiter (Liquid Memory) described the wines of Domaine Guy Roulot. And, after stellar visits at DRC and Domaine Armand Rousseau, we were on our way to taste the wines so eloquently described by Nossiter.

Domaine Guy Roulot is headed by Jean-Marc Roulot, scion of the namesake founder, who took the reins of the Domaine in 1989 from a succession of caretaker winemakers who had overseen production since the death of his father in 1982. The Domaine is known primarily for its plot-specific whites from Village and Premier Cru sites in Meursault but it also produces red wines with grapes sourced from Auxey-Duresses and Monthélie as well as a Bourgogne red sourced from Volnay and Puligny-Montrachet parcels.

                          Domaine Guy Roulot Meursault Climats and Lieux-Dits

Classification	Climats/Lieux-Dits	Location	Soil Characteristic	Wine Descriptors
Meursault		Slope south of valley
	Tillets	Highest on the slope and facing south		Floral and mineral. Vineyards on the upper slope make bititng, precise wines*
	Vireuils	North of Tillets at slightly lower elevation; east-facing		Rich yet racy
	Luchets	Further north and lower		Round with great length
	Narvaux	Adjacent to Tillets		Generous, lush character
	Meix Chavaux	North of Premier Crus but at same elevation		Opulent and ripe
	Tessons	do.		Powerful, long, complex
Premier Cru	Bouchères	Northernmost	Shallow, stony soil	Silky texture; medium-bodied; elegant. Bigger, rounder, easier*
	Porusot	South of Bouchères	do.	Fuller body
	Charmes	On Puligny border; 70-year-old vines		Round, fleshy, ripe, mineral, complex; great depth of flavor

Source: rarewineco.com; *Dominique Lafon in Nossiter’s Liquid Memory.

Jean-Marc's commitment to these terroirs, and their wines, is illustrated by his comments to Nossiter: "... I am as attached to my village vineyard designation as the premier cru. The day I can't bottle my Tillets, Meix Chavaux, and Tessons separately is the day I'll leave any system of official designation. ... We need to continue to work to understand the individual identities of each parcel of vines, whether it is at the village, premier cru, or grand cru level." In a more recent conversation with Benjamin Lewin MW, Jean-Marc ranked the differences between lieux-dits as: (i) exposition, (ii) elevation, then (iii) the clay-limestone proportions with a resultant 1-week differential in harvest-initiation between Luchets and Narvaux.

One of the early decisions that Jean-Marc made upon taking the reins at Domaine Roulot was to pursue organic farming. In explaining his decision to Nossiter, Jean-Marc spoke admiringly of biodynamicism but going organic was a huge step for the winery. It was a step, however, which allowed the individual identity of each plot to be "more strongly expressed." Even though practicing organic principles since 1989, the estate was not formally certified until 2013.

The estate produces both white and red wines with the whites made from Chardonnay or Aligoté and the red from Pinot Noir. The winemaking processes are illustrated in the graphic below.

A winemaking couple from Santa Barbara was joining us for the tasting so, after hurried introductions, we headed to the cellars. It was clear that Raj and Jean-Marc were good friends and were happy to see each other because they immediately fell into an animated winemaking conversation which threaded its way through our entire visit. It was fascinating and a wonderful learning opportunity for us.

The wines to be tasted were placed on an upright barrel in the center of the room and Jean-Marc began to open them. The tasting would unfold in two parts: a tasting of the 2012 whites followed by a tasting, some of it blind, of some older vintages.

As he opened the first bottle, Jean-Marc looked around the cellar ruefully noting that, under normal circumstances, barrels would be stacked three rows high. The 2012 vintage had not been normal though with hail damage, mildew, odium, and heat combining for a 60% reduction in stock.

Jean-Marc Roulot opening bottles for our tasting

Jean-Marc Roulot and Ron

Rajat Parr and Jean-Marc

The results of the tastings will be covered in a subsequent post.


©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Meursault? Or less so?

The Meursault commune, 5-km long and located just 7 km from Beaune, is the northern entry point to, arguably, the world's greatest concentration of stellar Chardonnay vines. While it cannot rival its Côte de Beaune compatriots Puligny-Montrâchet and Chassagne-Montrâchet in number of Grand Cru vineyards (it has none), the wines of Meursault are world-renowned and, as will be discussed later, may be undergoing a refinement in style even as we speak. I will be writing a post on our visit to the Guy Roulot cellars in the near future and so wanted to provide some context herein for that upcoming post.

Source: musée-boissons.com

In his book on the vineyards of France (Terroir: The Role of Geology, Climate and Culture in the Making of French Wines), James E. Wilson identifies what he refers to as Nuits and Beaune soil packages. The Beaune package is comprised of strata from the Callovian (Mid Jurassic) and Oxfordian (Upper Jurassic) periods, capped by Nantoux limestone. The Nuits package is comprised of Bajocian and Bathonian deposits (both Mid Jurassic) topped by Comblanchian limestone. The Nuits package dominates on the Côte d'Or before diving deep underground in the vicinity of Nuits-Saint-Georges. It reappears at Meursault but, to the north of the village, is overlain in the belly of the slope by a Beaune strata package. It is in this part of Meursault that red grapes are grown. To the south of the town, the Beaune package predominates and continues through Puligny-Montrâchet and Chassagne-Montrâchet. This area is home to some of the finest white wines in the world.

The plot architecture of the Meursault vineyard has the leading-edge of the Premier Cru vineyards abutting the Volnay commune and separated from the southern Premier Crus by a thick band of Village-level lieu dits.

The allowed grapes in the Meursault commune are Chardonnay and Pinot Blanc for whites and Pinot Noir and accessory grapes (Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris) for reds. Accessory grapes are limited to 15% of the vines on a given plot and must be vinified as part of a field blend. Planting density is 9000 vines/ha with max loadings of 10,500kg/ha for whites and 9000 kg/ha for reds. No irrigation is permitted.

At approximately 400 ha, Meursault is larger than Puligny-Montrâchet (202.98 ha) or Chassagne-Montrâchet (301.43 ha) but has fewer Premier Crus (19) than does Chassagne (56) and only two more than Puligny. Of the 400 ha, approximately 130 ha is designated Premier Cru with the most well-regarded climats being Les Perrieres, Les Genevirières, and Les Charmes. The best of the Village lieu dits are Clos de la Barre, Tesson, Chevalierès, Rougeot, and Narvaux.

In 2010, the region produced 18,400 hl of wine, 400 hl of which was white. The red wines produced in the north of the commune are labeled Volnay-Santenot in order to take advantage of the higher standing of Volnay reds. White wines produced in Blagny to the south are allowed to be labeled as Meursault-Blagny to take advantage of the market strength of Meursault in white wines. The best producers in the region are Comtes Lafon, Coche Dury, Guy Roulot, Jean-Philippe Fichet, Francois Jobart, Patrick Javillier, Michelle Bouzereau, and Arnold Ente.

The Bourgogne Wine Board (BIVB) is the "voice of the Bourgogne wind trade" and, on its website, describes the wines of Meursault thusly:

The young wine is redolent of toasted almonds and hazelnuts in a floral (mayflower, elder, bracken, lime, verbena) and mineral (flint) setting. Butter, honey, and citrus fruits are also present. On the palate it is rich and fat, with a cheerful and appealing taste of hazelnut.

BBR, on its website, describes the wines as "... typically rich and savory with nutty, honeyed hints and buttery, vanilla spice from the oak." But these descriptors may no longer be applicable across the board. In a 2010 article profiling Domaines des Comtes Lafon, Burgundy-Report gave a halting, non-specific observation of a shift in this particular producer's offerings: "I have the impression that there has been a style shift in both red and white wines in recent years ... the whites of the 1990s were ... forceful, and very well oaked." The whites he tasted on this particular trip "mesmerized" him.

In a recent post (Burgundy Diary part 6: Sea Change in Meursault -- Visits to Comtes Lafon, Guy Roulot, Michel Bouzereau, and Pierre Morey), Benjamin Lewin MW observes that this visit "... showed a real change in style from the old view that Meursault is soft, nutty, and buttery ..." He summarized the key elements of the change as follows: "Previously I have always been a devotée of Puligny for expressing terroir in that ineffably steely, mineral style, but Meursault is now running a close second."

Does this mean that Meursault has not been properly expressing its terroir all along? Or does it mean that terroir is fungible in that region? Stay tuned.


©Wine -- Mise en abyme

The Côte de Beaune (Burgundy, France) and its Grand Cru clusters

The Côte de Beaune is the southern portion of the Côte d'Or and runs for 20 km north to south from Ladoix-Serrigny to the hillside of Maranges.

Côte de Beaune

It is wetter and warmer in the Côte de Beaune than it is in the Côte de Nuit. Henri Jayer says that this is a result of a greater marine influence on Côte de Beaune. The relative warmth aids ripening and allows picking of the Côte de Beaune vineyards two days prior to the initiation of Côte de Nuit harvest. That being said, the major climatic influences associated with the greater Côte d'Or are relevant to the Côte de Beaune.

According to legendary Burgundy winemaker Henri Jayer (A Tribute to the Great Wines of Burgundy), the soils from Ladoix to Meursault are from the Late Jurassic, with Oxfordian and Callovian series' predominant (This would actually qualify as Middle-Late as the Callovian actually falls in the Mid-Jurassic period.). The mostly red marl, consisting, according to Jayer, of half-chalk and half-clay, is Pinot-Noir-friendly, producing supple and fruity red wines which are less structured and tannic than Côte de Nuit reds. These wines mature earlier than do the Nuit reds but, in the best years, will age well.

From Meursault to the middle of Chassagne-Montrachet, the middle Jurassic becomes evident . The sediments here were not completely transformed to limestone and were deposited in the area as white marl. Chardonnay thrives on this soil. Hence the Grand Crus of Chassagne- and Puligny-Montrachet. From the middle of Chassagne, the soil again becomes Mid-Late Jurassic, making way for light, supple Pinot Noir wines.

The Hill of Corton heralds the beginning of the Côte de Beaune wine region and, one would think, a sea of white wine.

The top of the hill is covered by dense woodland which gives way to cap rock of Rauracian limestone. Vineyard-capable limestone soils begin at about 345 meters and slope gently to the valley floor through "terroirs of distinction." The upper slopes are rich in marl and Chardonnay flourishes on the western side of the hill while Pinot Noir grows on the western side beginning at 330 meters elevation where Late Jurassic soils kick in. Two great Grand Cru vineyards share the hill: Corton (mostly red) and Corton-Charlemagne (white).

Source: burgundyonline.com

The Corton Grand Cru appellation is associated with the famed communes of Aloxe-Corton, Ladoix-Serrigny, and Pernand-Vergelesses. The vineyard is 97.53 ha in size (4.53 ha of which is planted to Chardonnay) and sits at elevations ranging between 250 and 330 meters. The Chardonnay vines are planted in the climats of Vergennes and Languettes.

While 4.5% of the Corton Grand Cru vineyard is devoted to Chardonnay vines, 6.19% of the Grand Cru production is white wine. There are 26 Lieux-dits in the appellation and the red wines are authorized to name the Lieux-dit on the bottle following the appellation name. White wines are not so allowed.

The Côte de Beaune's second Grand Cru cluster can be found around the towns of Puligny-Montrachet and Chassagne-Montrachet, both AOCs since 1937. Puligny-Montrachet soils are either brown limestones or limestones alternating with marls and limey clays; in either case, soil depth is varying. South of Chassagne-Montrachet, the soils have a higher concentration of limestone marl and red gravel, a boon for Pinot Noir. North of the village, the harder marls are substituted by softer, finer limestone and a preponderance of Chardonnay vines. The Grand Crus -- all white wines -- in this cluster are as follows:

• Le Montrachet -- shared between the two communes
• Bâtard-Montrachet -- shared between the two communes 
• Chevalier-Montrachet -- Puligny-Montrachet
• Bienvènues-Bâtard-Montrachet -- Puligny-Montrachet
• Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet -- Chassagne-Montrachet.

In addition to the Grand Crus, the two communes support Village and Premier Cru appellations. Puligny-Montrachet hosts 17 Premier Cru vineyards while Chassagne-Montrachet hosts 55. Noted Premier Cru vineyards in Puligny-Montrachet include: Les Demoiselles, Le Cailleret, Les Pucelles, Les Combettes, and Les Folaitières. Notable PC vineyards in Chassagne-Montrachet are : Caillerets, Ruchottes, Chaumées, and La Boudriotte.

The distribution of vineyard size and production by appellation is shown in the table below.

		Village			Village and Premier Cru			Grand Cru
		Production (hl)			Production (hl)			Production (hl)
Appellation	Size (ha)	Red	White	Size (ha)	Red	White	Size (ha)	Red	White
Aloxe-Corton				118.87	4361	88
Auxey-Duresses				132.87	3319	1787
Bâtard-Montrachet							11.73		486
Beaune				416.23	12,146	2195
Bienvènues-Bâtard-Montrachet							3.58		165
Blagny				4.31		142
Chassagne-Montrachet				307.52	3906	9346
Chevalier-Montrachet							7.47		287
Chorey-lès-Beaune	126.28	4712	425
Corton							97.53	2789	151
Corton-Charlemagne							52.08		1929
Côte-de Beaune	31.76	680	269
Côte-de Beaune Village	4.66	176
Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet							1.57		67
Ladoix				98.13	2478	952
Maranges				160.84	5390	357
Meursault				399.87	458	16,563
Montrachet							8		271
Pernand-Vergelesses				138.45	2644	2373
Pommard				325.65	12,014
Puligny-Montrachet				205.72	26	10,066
Saint-Aubin				154.01	1493	5054
Saint-Romain	92.26	1409	2259
Santenay				321.87	8742	2101
Savigny-les-Beaune				354.73	11,413	1620
Volnay				220.39	7587
Totals	3399.2	6977	2953	3359.46	75977	52644	181.96	2789	3356

To summarize then, in a total vineyard area of 6940.62 ha, Côte de Beaune vignerons produce 85,743 hectoliters of red wine and 58,593 hectoliters of white wine, with a counter-intuitive, almost-60% of the production being red.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme