2006 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.”

At harvest time in 2007, it was necessary to eliminate underripe grapes but there was little in the way of rot, Philippe Roty told me, because he had recently done a "pre-pass" through the affected parcels. Roty noted that the 2007 fruit was a bit lower in potential alcohol (12+%) than that of 2006 and lower in acidity, but the color was easy to extract. He believes that the 2007s will be for drinking before the 2006s, the latter a more powerful set of wines that he compares in quality to the 2005s. He was not the only vigneron who expressed this opinion in November.

Philippe Roty told me he was lucky he hadn't green-harvested or pulled leaves yet in Fontenys, Griottes or Mazis when the hail hit in late July, although he had started these activities elsewhere. He began harvesting on September 23 because he was afraid of losing more acidity and getting notes of surmaturite. "We eliminated more underripe than rotten grapes in '06," he told me. Roty does an eight-day pre-fermentation cold soak at 8oC, and one punchdown and one pumpover per day during the fermentation, which does not normally surpass 30oC. "We have plenty of color even before the alcoholic fermentation begins, and hotter temperatures could kill it; that wouldn't be stable color," he explained, adding that he vinifies with a "cocktail of local yeasts from Burgundy." As is normally the case here, the 2006s had been racked in April following the malo, and taken off their gross lees. Incidentally, Roty considers 2005 to be the domain's finest vintage since 1990.