2008 Domaine Emmanuel Rouget Echézeaux Grand Cru

Candied cherry, marzipan, kirsch, and cinnamon on the nose of Rouget’s 2008 Echezeaux carry over into a palate at once obviously structured and sweetly ripe, with a steady flow of cherry and black raspberry as well as soothing glycerin (despite the wine’s modest – circa 13% – alcohol). Both smoked and roasted meat flavors lend depth, and this lingers with a terrific balance of freshness and sweetness, fine-grained tannin and glyceral richness. It deserves at least 4-5 years in bottle to develop almost inevitable further complexity and should be worth following for at least a dozen years. I tasted Emmanuel Rouget’s 2008s from barrel in April and he was planning to bottle them within a month. According to one of Rouget’s favorite descriptors, the vintage was “tres particulaire,” not to mention challenging. “I harvested at an average of 12%” potential alcohol, he reports, “and chaptalized less than a degree. That sufficed. It was more important to harvest while there was still good weather and besides, it was already cold. There was a lot of acidity, but that conveys a superb equilibrium and level of freshness. The wines really exhibit the plenitude of Pinot.” Rouget rejects what he acknowledges is a widespread comparison of 2008 with 1996, suggesting that the latter “was more marked by sunshine, and resulted in less-noticeable acidity.” (As noted in the introduction to this report, he compares 2008 with 1986.) Importer: Martine’s Wines, Novato, CA; tel. (415) 883-0400

(made in 100% new barrels dried for a full three years; the Georges Jayer example comes from the identical parcel but was done in a 2006 barrel) Deep red. Red fruits, minerals and smoke on the nose; deeper than the Georges wine. Then sweeter and riper in the mouth, with more stuffing and depth and lovely Oriental spice perfume. In a much suppler, rounder style. Finishes persistent and aromatic, with a firm edge of tannins. (The penetrating Cros Parantoux showed a sexy, exotic crushed cherry and raspberry quality but was just starting its secondary fermentation.)