Domaine Armand Rousseau is one of the most famous and best domaines in Burgundy. Based in Gevrey-Chambertin, the estate is formed of just over 15 hectares, over half of which is Grand Cru.
This is one of Burgundy’s greatest domaines – in terms of history, vineyard holdings and quality of wine. The original Armand Rousseau was at the forefront of the first wave of domaine bottling in the 1930s. He was succeeded by his son Charles in 1959, shortly after they had bought a significant slice of the Clos St Jacques vineyard. Today Eric, grandson of Armand, is in charge of the vines and cellar, with the help of his daughter Cyrielle.
The domaine produces pale, finely structured wines of great elegance and stamina. The simple principle of old (but not ancient) vines and sensible yields dictates the Rousseau style. Sometimes the wines can appear light in their youth, but they nearly always take on weight as they age.
99 Points Allen Meadows
I was frankly quite surprised to find the Chambertin almost as expressive and every bit as broad aromatically as the Bèze as the nose is equally kaleidoscopic if featuring a more deeply pitched set of fruit aromas and more earth. The flavors are bigger if not finer with serious power and weight on the rich, full and driving finish that possesses an exuberant underlying sense of energy, all wrapped in a core of rock solid but ripe and balanced tannins. Like the potential of the Bèze, this too has a chance to ascend as one of the top vintages ever typified by such years as ’34, ’49, ’52, ’62, ’66 and ’91. Arguably the Chambertin of the vintage.
98 Points Robert Parker Wine Advocate
Rousseau’s 2005 Chambertin – assembled from four parcels, three of them in relatively cool, well-ventilated portions of this cru – offers high-toned aromas of plum distillate, tea and marzipan, but on the palate, chalk, raw beef, dried plum, bitter-sweet black fruits and roasted fennel flavors combine for a low-registered richness. This is the creamiest, plushest, most voluminous, and perhaps in the final analysis deepest wine of this year’s Rousseau collection, with a savory meatiness, chalky minerality and a well of fruit impossible to plumb at such an early stage in what will certainly be three or more decades of testimony to the true greatness of this famous site.
100 Points Decanter
Medium-full colour. Closed-in but rich, concentrated nose. Good grip here. Medium-full body. Ripe, balanced, fresh and very profound and elegant. Exceptionally fine, complex fruit. Good as his Clos de Bèze is, this is, as always, just that bit superior. A great wine.
19/20 Jancis Robinson
Mid crimson. Lustrous look. Very firm and manly – the butch side of Pinot?! Firm and striated with iron. Straight-backed stuff, no sweet soppiness here. Very rich and spicy and alluring. Juicy and sumptuous and, ok, there’s still a hint of oak but this is such wonderful stuff it’s a real treat to be tasting it. So neat and long and although it is not luscious, it is not painfully dry. So rich yet structured. True spice, not tarty stuff. Only 500 cases made.