2015 Domaine Armand Rousseau Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru

The 2015 Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru has a well-defined nose of morello cherry and crushed strawberry suffused with rose petals; it is one of the finest bouquets in this peer group flight, although it fails to articulate the promise it demonstrated in barrel. The medium-bodied palate offers supple tannin, crisp acidity, good focus and detail and a fine seam of mineralité on the finish. It just lacks a bit of substance and doesn’t quite possess the persistence you expect. Tasted blind at the annual Burgfest tasting.

Tasted blind, the 2015 Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru displays a very attractive and expressive bouquet of red berries, cherries, rich loamy soil, peony and raw cocoa, subtly framed by some cedary, recently used oak. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, ample and juicy, with a supple attack, an open-knit palate but a disappointingly firm, compact—even somewhat drying—finish. While in February this performed quite modestly given its pedigree and appellation, my score when tasting blind was a few points lower.