2009 Charmes-Chambertin Très Vieilles Vignes Grand Cru

The Roty family’s Charmes-Chambertin from ancient vines has established a half-century track record as one of Burgundy’s monumental collectibles.

Full disclosure: I may have a genetic susceptibility to the wines of Domaine Joseph Roty, particularly their marvelous Charmes-Chambertin. In fact, I have more bottles of Roty’s Charmes-Chambertin Cuvée de “Très Vieilles Vignes” in my cellar than any other Burgundy, and they rarely disappoint. My extensive vertical tasting of this bottling in December was also a celebration of a very private family—and the ghost in the room was the formidable personality of the late Joseph Roty, who was largely responsible for creating the “Roty style.”

Also recommended:2009 Marsannay (85).

For about as long as I've been coming to Burgundy, I've tasted at the back of the Roty family's garage, behind a tiny barrel room (their main facility is in Nuits-Saint-Georges). In the early years I tasted with Joseph Roty himself, a chain smoker, avid stamp collector and true eccentric who, when visiting critic Clive Coates objected "I can't taste these wines if you insist on talking incessantly and smoking," simply invited Coates to leave. In declining health through the middle 2000s, Roty passed away in 2008 and the wine world lost an outspoken original. For the past several years, I have tasted two vintages each of 17 or 18 sample bottles lined up on a nondescript white table at the back of garage, freezing on a November evening, watched by sons Philippe and Pierre-Jean, who are both perfectly sociable but don't give up much more than name, rank and potential alcohol when it comes to technical information. Madame Roty appears at precisely the right moment with a tray of warm gougeres. Philippe noted that despite the high sugars of 2009 (the family began harvesting on September 12 with potential alcohol between 12.5% and 13.5%), some rain on the 10th swelled the grapes and had a lot to do with the full volumes. And he still eliminated underripe grapes at harvest-time. As the seeds were ripe, the Rotys did more pigeage and a stronger pressing, although they typically keep fermentation temperatures around 30oC, and sometimes significantly lower than that. (Extraction was gentler in 2008: "we lacked one more week of sun, and the seeds were still green," noted Pierre-Jean.) Philippe noted that in 2008 the family purchased a destemmer with a crusher that doesn't crush the stems; he believes that the new equipment produces wines with less herbaceousness and bitterness. In any event, the top bottlings here really call for, and reward, time in the cellar, becoming both more assertive and more harmonious with extended bottle aging. The Rotys work their wines reductively, and that's why they rarely allow visitors, especially groups, to taste from barrel. "Too much in and out of the barrels risks oxidizing the wine," says Philippe.