The Wine Was Chambertin: Rousseau 1919-2017

BY NEAL MARTIN | JUNE 21, 2022

“I forget the name of the place; I forget the name of the girl; but the wine was Chambertin” - Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953)

Can we look at the fermented grape juice featured herein without peering through a pecuniary lens? Let’s not distil these precious bottles of Chambertin to monetary value. The currency is intellectual and sensory pleasure, not Dollars or Euros. I wonder if it is possible to replicate a bygone age, not so long ago, when Rousseau was simply a byword for wondrous Pinot Noir, when bottles were shared with appreciative friends, an era when even Rousseau’s most reputed wines were more affordable than highfalutin Claret? Strip away the myth that surrounds these bottles and what are you left with? A soulful Burgundy wine with a propensity to warm the cockles of the heart.

Like most of humanity, nowadays I don’t have the chance to drink Rousseau’s wines often, so when I was invited to a vertical tasting of their Chambertin I started doing cartwheels around the back garden. This was a private event organised by Jordi “No Vertical Impossible” Oriols-Gil, part of his continuing series of retrospectives. Diary from January to December cleared, it would take a global pandemic to nix his plans and…well, you know what happened next. The tasting was frustratingly postponed two or three times until finally a date in early May 2022 was set. The only change was the venue, at Rousseau’s request switched from London to Vienne, just south of Lyon, at the famous La Pyramide restaurant. This would allow Cyrielle Rousseau to take leave of her beloved vines and join us for the occasion.

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This was a bona fide, once-in-a-lifetime event. Twenty-five vintages plus surprises from 2000 back to the opening pages of Rousseau’s remarkable story, festooned with historical bottles that you never see. Assembling a vertical of this magnitude demanded patience, diplomacy, teamwork and a second helping of patience. To their own chagrin, Rousseau’s cellar is bereft of bottles predating the Eighties. “I asked my grandmother why we don’t have any old bottles,” Cyrielle Rousseau told me. “She said that her husband [Charles Rousseau] might have kept a few back, but he often entertained friends or distributors, and before you knew it, they were down to their last bottle.” Ergo, the only ex-Domaine bottle in this report is the 1987. Despite the lion’s share of older vintages on the cusp of extinction, Oriols-Gil managed to obtain two bottles of many vintages. A good job too. Several bottles were corked or oxidised - collateral loss when broaching vinous antiquity. Tragically, they included TCA-riddled 1937 and 1971 Chambertin.

Attendees flew in from around the world, some brandishing prized bottles from their own private collections. The format of the tasting was innovative. The first session, a seminar whereby the first dozen wines were served in reverse chronological order from 2000 back to 1953. The second session revolved around an extended lunch at La Pyramide where they were partnered with a specially-prepared menu by chef Patrick Henriroux, broaching older vintages before tracking back to younger ones in order not to overpower them. Incidentally, the previous evening we dined at the bistro, and I’ll write this up as a Vinous Table since we tasted a bevy of remarkable mature Burgundy and Rhônes.

At this point, let’s break away from the tasting for a brief background to Domaine Rousseau and the Chambertin vineyard.