2023 Mazy-Chambertin Grand Cru

Cyrielle Rousseau welcomed me to this iconic Gevrey address on a damp autumnal morning. She is always someone with whom I enjoy shooting the breeze. Thank goodness walls don’t have ears.

“We did a green harvest where we got rid of half of the bunches,” she tells me. “But there was still a lot of fruit. Everything that seemed a bit shriveled was not picked. The temperatures made sure that the grapes were mature. We started on September 7 and picked over eight days, only picking in the morning. We had a little botrytis in Mazis-Chambertin but that aside, everything was beautiful. Most of the appellation is at the maximum yield with some pickers leaving grapes unpicked. In any case, all the vats were full.”

This is an exquisite set of wines from Rousseau that embody everything that is great about them. Often overlooked is their sheer drinkability. These are not wines to keep as prizes, instead wines that cry out to be drunk. They are built around extremely fine tannins, lighter chassis than in 2022, yet unlike others they deliver just the right amount of concentration combined with terroir expression on the finish. Only the Mazis-Chambertin left me wondering if it reached full potential, perhaps knocked off-balance by that touch of botrytis?