Rousseau

Tasting Notes:
RousseauÕs 2005 Clos de la Roche offers a nose of ripe cherries, cedar and brown spices, a rich and expansive palate, and a sweet, pure, juicy finish of cherry, boysenberry, toasty, crusty pastry, hints of caramel, a whiff of wood smoke and a lick of salt. For purity of fruit and intensity allied to formidable extract and superb, lattice-like structure, itÕs hard to beat this wine as a candidate for at least a couple of decades in the cellar, one to check up on in eight or ten years. With Eric Rousseau taking over increasingly from his father Charles, bottling may end up being slightly earlier than in the past, but such routine features as triage exclusively in the vineyards (not the press house), the inclusion of whole clusters and stems, precocious malolactic fermentation (although in 2005 and 2006, at least, Rousseau says he didnÕt force this), reliance on older barrels, and an eventual light plaque filtration for all wines remain as before. Given the long-running success of these Pinots in subtly yet insistently conveying the distinct personalities of their sites and standing the test of time, some might well ask Ùwhy change the recipe?Î while others will wonder whether the wines could be made even better. In any event, nature conspired to hand the new generation a vintage of historic dimensions. Wine Advocate # 170 Apr 2007
Parker Points: 93
Drinking Period:  -

Tasting Notes:
This dark ruby-colored wine exhibits a nose of charred oak encrusted with blackberries, cassis, and stones. It has a full-bodied, expansive, highly-defined, complex, and silky-textured personality that possesses black cherries, iron, minerals, gravel, and cassis. This firm and highly structured wine will require cellaring. Projected maturity: 2005-2012. As far as the 1996 vintage is concerned, Rousseau's comments were bluntly candid -
Parker Points: 92-94
Drinking Period: 2005-2012

Tasting Notes:
This dark ruby-colored wine exhibits a nose of charred oak encrusted with blackberries, cassis, and stones. It has a full-bodied, expansive, highly-defined, complex, and silky-textured personality that possesses black cherries, iron, minerals, gravel, and cassis. This firm and highly structured wine will require cellaring. Projected maturity: 2005-2012. As far as the 1996 vintage is concerned, Rousseau's comments were bluntly candid -
Parker Points: 92-94
Drinking Period: 2005-2012

Tasting Notes:
This dark ruby-colored wine exhibits a nose of charred oak encrusted with blackberries, cassis, and stones. It has a full-bodied, expansive, highly-defined, complex, and silky-textured personality that possesses black cherries, iron, minerals, gravel, and cassis. This firm and highly structured wine will require cellaring. Projected maturity: 2005-2012. As far as the 1996 vintage is concerned, Rousseau's comments were bluntly candid -
Parker Points: 92-94
Drinking Period: 2005-2012

Tasting Notes:
The Clos de la Roche is one of the few wines in the Rousseau portfolio that displays some of the vintage's tough, hard, astringent tannin, and shrill acid. There is good cherry fruit, medium body, and power and muscle to this more rustic-styled wine. It should drink well between 1998-2008. Baritone-voiced Charles Rousseau's 1993s are successful for the vintage, and softer than I expected given the inclination for the 1993s to be hard and tannic. The Wine Advocate, #100, Aug-95.
Parker Points: 86
Drinking Period: 1998-2008