2006 Marsannay Les Ouzeloy

The Roty 2006 Marsannay En Ouzelois combines black fruits and red meat with saline and chalky mineral notes as well as pungent black pepper and bitter fruit pit. The palate-staining intensity on display here reflects the venerable age of Roty's vines in this pebbly site, and while firm in texture, this cuvee's tannins are fine and it finishes with an abundance of sappy dark berries as well as chalk and spice. It will probably benefit form a couple of years in bottle and should be worth following for at least 4-6. Philippe Roty is among the many growers to assert that under-ripe fruit rather than rot was what really drove his 2006 selection process. "But, hail or no hail, I do a strict triage regardless; and besides" he notes with a laugh, "it hails every year in at least one part of Marsannay." He picked in a relative hurry the last week of September, because "as far as I'm concerned, above 13% potential alcohol you have surmaturite, and that's not good." Besides, like the Mugneret sisters and a considerable number of other top-notch growers, Roty favors routinely – if only slightly – chaptalizing his entire range to promote longer and, he believes, flavor- and texture-enhancing fermentation. (While I have mentioned in the text of my tasting notes those wines that are part of the personal domaine of Philippe Roty and bottled under his name, I have not reflected this in the naming of the wines, as the same label is used for those as for the Domaine Joseph Roty wines and they are all vinified and aged together by the same team.) Importer: Alain Junguenet, Wines of France, Mountainside, NJ; tel. (908) 654-6173