2021 Bourgogne Rouge

Rouget was unusually chatty when I made my annual visit to the Domaine in Flagey-Echézeaux, answering in detail about the various strands of the Jayer family. In keeping with his late uncle Henri’s core tenet, everything is de-stemmed in this vintage after picking commenced on September 3. There is also comparatively higher use of new oak, 100%, mainly but not exclusively from François Frère for his top cuvées such as the Echézeaux and Cros Parantoux. Some give his wines short shrift, perhaps inevitably comparing them to those of Jayer. However, I have found more consistency in recent vintages, except in 2020, where I felt he picked too late. Here, there is a combination of opulence and refinement, so even where he has applied new oak, the caliber of the climats shines through.

“The harvest was very complicated,” Emmanuel Rouget tells me in his cellar in Gilly. “It was hard getting pickers during COVID-19. I started on 22 September, but you had to find the bunches. It was not that warm, but there was no rain during picking. The fermentation was slightly slower during the 21-day cuvaison period during which we did pigeage as usual, though not as hard as in other years. I just did one per day, alternating with remontage.” Broaching the style of the wines with Rouget, he tells me: “There is fine freshness and persistence, but there is a lot of reduction in the barrels at the moment. The Savigny and Chorey-lès-Beaune were racked in July.” Then perhaps the sentence that highlights the contrast between two vintages more than any other during my six-week stay… “The highest degree in alcohol in 2021 was 14% whereas in 2020 it was the minimum.”