2008 Domaine Georges Roumier Musigny Grand Cru
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Tasting notes
The 2008 Musigny Grand Cru, which was vinified with 100% stems, has a bright, clear ruby core with thin bricking on the rim. The refined, characterful nose displays superb definition, offering cranberry and raspberry fruit, crushed rose petal and a leafy component that becomes more pronounced with aeration. You could argue that the stem addition juts out a little, perhaps exaggerated by its juxtaposition against the 2007 Musigny, although I can abide that facet. The palate is medium-bodied with tart red fruit on the entry, plenty of sous-bois and saline characteristics and plenty of depth. It does not possess the opulence of the 2007; it is more a Musigny that wears its heart on its sleeve. I concur with Tanzer’s observation that the stems have not fully assimilated into this wine, and after a decade, I suspect they never will. Yet this is still a thoroughly enjoyable if not fault-free wine. Tasted in November 2018 at the Roumier Musigny dinner at Épure in Hong Kong.
Critic scores
Jancis Robinson MW
Neal Martin
More reviews and scores
Medium red, a bit paler than the Bonnes-Mares. Rather inexpressive nose shows pepper and strong spice notes but less in the way of flowers and minerals than the Amoureuses. Lush and sweet for the vintage, but more savory, saline and soil-driven than floral or fruity. Finishes with superb fine-grained tannins and no hardness. This turned fresher with aeration, but does it have the same high notes as Roumier's other top 2008s? It's possible that the wine's stem element (it was vinified with 100% whole clusters) is currently overpowering all else.
Given that there is as usual for this bottling only a barrique and a half of Roumier's 2008 Musigny, neither barrel is new. This was vinified entirely vendange entier, and had been bottled for only three weeks when I tasted it in February. Haunting, high-toned scents of kirsch, rowan, lily, heliotrope, and cinnamon lead to a bright, searching palate impression piquantly tinged with cherry pit, brown spices, and underlain with dark forest floor emanations. Ultra-fine tannins and a deep, umami-rich meaty finishing savor take this startlingly far from the "fruit syrup" expression of de Vogue's equally impressive Musigny of the vintage. But along with all of the best 2008s, this displays terrific - in this instance low-toned, reverberative - finishing energy. Christophe Roumier says his 2008 fruit demanded rigorous sorting to remove under-ripe bunches (whereas in 2007 this was necessary to remove rot), but he liked what was left enough to indulge in a significant proportion (most frequently 50%) of stems and whole clusters for the fermentations. "With such tiny, perfect berries, it was almost a shame to de-stem any of them," he remarks. Late to go through malo, like so many others of that year, these 2008s certainly preserve the vintage's primary virtues of vivacity and interactive complexity. Not more than 50% new wood was employed, to guard against loss of the vintage's vividly bright fruit in a vintage Roumier felt was unusually sensitive in that regard. Some of the 2008s remind him of 1980 or, more precisely, of what the 1980s could have become given today's standards of viticulture and selection. Roumier has a higher opinion of 2007 and their age-worthiness than do I, considering them superior to 2006 or 2008 - and given the way the two that I tasted from bottle showed, that opinion is not inexplicable. (I tasted the other Roumier 2007s too early in their evolution to render proper verdicts, although they were certainly effusively generous if not yet complex even pre-malo.) Roumier employed comparable percentages of stems and whole clusters, and indulged in more frequent pigeage than in 2008, comparing his resulting 2007s with 1985s. Importer: Diageo Chateau and Estate Wines Company, New York, NY; tel. (212) 419-1400
About the producer
Based in Chambolle-Musigny, the domaine was established by Georges Roumier in 1924. The domaine started to bottle their own wines in 1945.