1997 Marsannay Les Ouzeloy

Joseph's son Philippe, who has his own storefront in Gevrey and vines in Marsannay, is taking on more of the work here, and it was Philippe I tasted with in November, as Joseph had a bad case of the flu, which he maintained he had contracted as a result of a flu shot. Short pruning and a high percentage of very old vines is the key to low yields here, rather than green harvesting. Although the percentage of new oak varies, Philippe told me that barrels are generally used just three times for the red wines, then are used to make rose. He also said that a bit less than one-third new oak was used for the '98s, and still less than that for the '97s. "My father and I especially like the wines aged in one-year-old barrels," said Philippe. In light of both the vintage's and the Roty wines' tendency toward early austerity, I found the '98s almost shockingly aromatic and expressive; all indications are that this will be a superb crop of wines. (I recall Roty telling me in November of '98 that he had benefitted from harvesting early.) The '97s were more of a mixed bag, dense and quite successful at the high end of the range but with a couple of the Marsannays showing dry tannins and pale colors owing to hail.

"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."