The history of Domaine Emmanuel Rouget is forever tied to the famous vigneron Henri Jayer, Emmanuel’s uncle. By the early 1980s, Henri had already become one of the most legendary winemakers in Burgundy, influencing a generation of young vignerons in Burgundy and around the world. Henri began to think about the future of his domaine and though he had two daughters, neither of them were interested in making wine. In 1985 he took on his nephew Emmanuel Rouget as his protégé and began leasing some of his vines to him. Over the years, Jayer gave up more and more vines to his nephew.
In 2001, following his retirement, all of his vines went under the control of Emmanuel Rouget, including the Georges Jayer vines, which have been vinified in the cellar of Rouget since 2002. Since 2011, the control of the domaine has passed to Emmanuel’s two sons Nicolas and Guillaume. Nicolas keeps watch over the vineyards while Guillaume is principally in the winery.
94-96 Points Allen Meadows
The heavy wood spice that dominated the concentrated black fruit from cask has now largely, if not completely, been absorbed and leads to round, sexy, seductive, earthy, nicely rich and detailed flavors of excellent intensity and fine length. This is still relatively primary though the depth is slowly emerging and while it will undoubtedly be a long term cellar candidate, it should be close to its majority in another 7 to 10 years. Note that I have upgraded my view of this wine considerably as I was not at all sure that it could successfully integrate this much wood but indeed it has. Tasted several times recently with consistent results.