Tasting at Domaine Roulot, Meursault - Day 4 of Visit to Burgundy 2010

20 November 2010: Fuelled by a couple of gougères being served at the Hospices de Beaune, we left Beaune promptly at 11:15 am to head over to Domaine Roulot, where we were again joined by a large group of keen tasters of the domaine’s wines. The 2009 vintage was another success for Jean-Marc, who spoke very good English and was very patient in answering all our questions. He started the harvest on 1st September with the Poruzots vineyard, with Les Luchets being the last to be harvested.

The first 2009 wine we tasted was one of the 4 Climats du Coeur, a Meursault wine assembled from different vineyards and estates. This was a charity group founded by Anne-Claude Leflaive of Domaine Leflaive, Jacques Lardière of Maison Louis Jadot, Véronique Drouhin of Maison Joseph Drouhin, Aubert de Villaine of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Erwan Faiveley of Masion Faiveley, Jeremy Seysses of Domaine Dujac, Jean-Marc Roulot of Domaine Roulot and Louis-Fabrice Latour of Maison Louis Latour, to make use of a portion of the plentiful supply of 2009 vintage in Burgundy to vinify the grapes assembled from different estates and then sell them in cases of 4 magnums of Premier Cru wines to raise money for local charities in Burgundy.  The 4 magnums are Gevrey Chambertin, Vosne-Romanée, Meursault and Puligny Montrachet.   The Meursault that we tasted was vinified using grapes from Maison Louis Latour, Dom Roulot, Dom des Comtes Lafon, Maison Deux Montille Sœur Frère, Maison Albert Bichot, Maison Bouchard Père et Fils, Maison Olivier Leflaive, Dom Albert Grivault and Dom Bitouzet Prieur.  I thought this was a great wine and at EUR 1,000 a case (including VAT), it would make a very meaningful contribution towards some very good causes.  For more information, please visit: http://www.climats-du-coeur.com/.

This was followed by the domaine’s Bourgogne Blanc (production of 20,000 bottles), Les Vireuils (nutty, melon, mineral), Mes Chevaux (240 -250 m altitude vineyard), Les Luchets (a lot of minerality), Les Tillets( ripe fruit, very persistent, still very closed), Les Tessons (more flesh and more persistence), and then the 4 Premiers Crus: Bouchères, Poruzots (more weight than the Bouchères), Charmes (nutty, creamy, less concentrated than the best Charmes as his Charmes is from the Charmes Dessous) and finally Perrières (smokey, ripe fruit, lots of minerality, subtle and complex, very refined, only 6 barrels were made for 2009, roughly 1,600 bottles). Jean-Marc said the domaine does not have the best plot for Charmes but certainly the best for Perrières. My favourites amongst the 2009 were Perrières, Les Tessons and Les Luchets.

Jean-Marc Roulot

After the barrel samplet tasting, Jean-Marc very generously took us through some bottled samples of back vintages: 2008 Les Tillets, 2007 Tillets (much more evolved), 07 Luchets (tighter on the palate, more substance in this wine), 2004 Tillets (full body ,very lively acidity – 2004 produced very lively wines according to Jean-Marc), 2003 Meix Chavaux (already a mature style showing nutty, honey, burnt sugar, smoke and ginger), 2002 Perrières and 1996 Tessons (great structure and complexity).  

Jean-Marc started working in the domaine in 1989. He said that he had been following organic viticulture practices for 10 years but he had only just passed the first level of certification recently. He is not yet convinced about biodynamic viticulture at this point. He talked a bit about his winemaking and viticulture practices, such as no green harvest, but early and rigorous pruning (including shoot pruning), only bâtonnage for healthy grapes, etc.  We even asked him about his activity in the movie industry and he divulged a tiny bit about his latest movie!

1961 Meursault Roulot

A member of the tasting group, Frank, then produced a bottle of 1961 Meursault from the domaine as a present to Jean-Marc. He said it was probably produced by his father, under supervision by his grandfather. Probably a Meix Chavaux, although it was not clear from the label. Frank was generous to share this with all of us. The wine was suddenly shocked into existence, from its deep slumber. After a bit of aeration to shake out the mustiness, it was a richly developed nose of barley sugar, toffee, marmalade, dried figs, dried apricots, marron glace and tobacco. Still well structured and an interesting wine, even if the prominence of acidity was highlighted by the absence of fruit character.

We waited till the rest of the group had left to try the wine from our barrel of Hospices de Beaune Corton Charlemagne, which we entrusted to Domaine Roulot for the élevage et mise en bouteille. Jean-Marc said it had been a very challenging project and he had difficulty balancing the acidity, as the Hospices team picked quite late and the wine did not quite have the right level of acidity that he would have preferred. He also had a few problems with residual sugar! Anyway, we said goodbye to Jean-Marc, assured that our wine is in good hands until it is in bottles!

We got back to Chagny before being blockaded by the marathon organizers. What brave people to go for a 42-km run in this miserable rain and winter chill! Reasonably inspired, Richard and I went on a 2-hour walk to get our appetite up for dinner at Lameloise, my favourite hotel and restaurant in the region.