2018 Mazy-Chambertin Grand Cru

Winemaker Cyrielle Rousseau was on hand to guide me through their 2018s. Since she has so many appointments at this time of year, she is asked the same old questions (she loves being asked the exact pH of every wine), so we conversed about such diverse matters as countries we would love to visit (she has a calling for Nicaragua, though I am not sure if Domaine Rousseau has a huge following there), food we love to eat (she is a self-confessed "cheese monster", in particular Vacherin) and music (we both share a fondness for Joni Mitchell, although at that moment she fancied listening to Claire de Lune during our tasting.) She told me that the domaine began picking on 1 September with the village crus and finished around eight days later. "I was worried that the wines might be heavy with the high sugar levels, but now I am very pleased with the 2018s. We did nothing different this vintage. They are very Rousseau," she told me, before mentioning that she was especially pleased with her "behaving" Clos de la Roche because for once it is not reduced after racking. All the 2018s are de-stemmed as usual with modest amounts of new oak. I tasted all these wines directly from cask, the ones with the coloured "magic crystals" that a) indicate which one to extract wine from and b) give Cyrielle special magic powers. If you love Rousseau (and frankly you don’t like wine if you don’t) then you will adore these 2018s.