1996 Marsannay Les Ouzeloy

"With such ripeness, 1997 can't possibly be a bad vintage," maintained Roty, who was quick to add that he benefitted tremendously from having an apparatus to chill the must in order to do his normal cold maceration. Roty was not troubled by the level of acidity in '97, but he did tell me he started the harvest very early in '98 and that, in his opinion, the ban de vendange in 1998 was too late. Roty wines offer extraordinary density, and even the '97s will require several years of bottle aging. What I continue to find most distinctive about these wines--beyond their sheer power, inner-mouth aromatics and persistence is the way the tannins, however palate-saturating, are buried deep within the wines' fruit. Incidentally, much of the winemaking load is now the responsibility of son Philippe, using what his father refers to as "the Roty methods."

Never shy with his opinions, Roty is critical of many of today red Burgundies, including the wines of several of his neighbors in Gevrey-Chambertin. Too many people, he claims, use young vines or the wrong clones, get excessive yields, and ferment at too high a temperature, which can give an astringency to the wines in years when the stems are less ripe. Then they use a lot of new oak to mask the underripe skins. Roty, in contrast, benefits from extremely old vines (his youngest Gevrey villages vines are 45 years old), very low yields, and generally ripe skins due to late harvesting. There are no clones in his vineyards: "A clone is a monster; it's against nature," says Roty. Roty ferments long and cool and varies the percentage of new oak according to the vintage (from none at all in 1994 to 100% for the grand crus in 1985), usually using around 20% new barrels. Roty ranks 1995 with 1993 and 1985, his two previous favorite vintages. According to Roty, 1996 is rather like '95, but with a bit of dilution and more supple tannins because there was more juice in the grapes. He describes the wines as velvety, perfumed, and capable of giving considerable pleasure. The '96 harvest brought the largest crop here in 30 years.