2017 Domaine Joseph Roty Charmes-Chambertin Tres Vieilles Vignes Grand Cru
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The 2017 Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru Très Vieilles Vignes has turned out even better than I anticipated, unfurling in the glass with a magical bouquet of cassis, plums and blackberries mingled with dark chocolate, spices, sweet soil tones, licorice and black truffle. Full-bodied, layered and multidimensional, it's extraordinarily sumptuous and concentrated, framed by velvety tannins that caress the palate, and underpinned by lively acids, concluding with a long and expansive finish. Pierre-Jean Roty compares it to the 2012 and 2009 renditions, which readers who follow this domaine will know is high praise indeed.
Critic scores
Neal Martin
Neal Martin
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The 2017 Charmes-Chambertin Très Vieilles Vignes Grand Cru has a backward, primal bouquet of dense red berry fruit, scents of briar and wild hedgerow and wilted rose petals. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannins and a fine bead of acidity. Fresh and focused. showing a touch of blood orange and quince toward the detailed yet surprisingly muscular finish. This has a long future ahead. Excellent.
The 2017 Charmes-Chambertin Très Vieilles Vignes is the darkest in colour of Roty’s three Grand Crus. It also has the most backward and stoic bouquet at the moment, only reluctantly unfolding with blackberry, briary and crushed stone aromas. The palate is medium-bodied with a slight torrefaction note on the entry, plenty of brown spices with great depth on the muscular but supremely focused finish. Superb, but maybe the Griottes and Mazis could surpass it this year?
A cool, elegant and restrained nose flashes an array of various red fruit scents that include cherry, raspberry and a hint of pomegranate, along with soft earth, spice and discreet wood nuances. There is a lovely sense of underlying tension to the delicious, intense and well-detailed medium weight flavors that deliver fine depth and persistence on the well-balanced and firmer finish. Unusually for this wine, it's not as dense as the Griotte though it's perhaps a bit more refined than usual.