In Bond per 12x75cl
"Deep ruby, violet blue rim. The palate has lovely density and a broad, silky texture. The tannins are rounded and this has lovely length – nothing rustic or extracted here – real finesse."
The word 'Gevrey' comes from 'Gibriacus' which means keeper of goats because the land was so inhospitable that the only things that could thrive were goats. It was perfect for vines which were planted here from the 1st century AD. The word Chambertin, the best field in the village, was joined to Gevrey in 1847. Gevrey-Chambertin was the first village to affix the name of its top vineyard. The blending and bottling of these wines from different parcels gives a unique and classique cuvée of Gevrey-Chambertin with each vineyard adding its own character.
Allen Meadows, Burghound;
Brothers David and Nicolas Rossignol run this 100% biodynamically farmed domaine. This year I met with both of the brothers who told me that "because the growing season was so challenging we were very pleasantly surprised to have wound up with such clean and almost perfectly ripe fruit. In fact generally speaking the fruit was so clean that it required almost no sorting of any consequence though this was not true for our Côte de Beaune vineyards as there we had hail. In this regard we were particularly hard hit in Beaune. Given the hail and the fact that there was a poor flowering that especially affected older vines our quantities were off between 25 and 45%. Because the fruit was so clean we used between 25 and 50% whole clusters in the vinifications. As to the wines they are chiseled, concentrated and energetic and should keep better than people seem to think. We have noticed many of our colleagues suggesting that the 2012s will be precocious and while this may be true for them, our wines have become better balanced but more restrained and tighter with each passing month of élevage. Time of course will tell how they age but we remain very optimistic that they will cellar well for a long time if that's what our clients want." From my standpoint I would characterize the performance here as being basically consistent with the general level of quality found in both 2012 and 2011.
Neal Martin - erobertparker.com, Dec 2013; I remember visiting Domaine Rossignol-Trapet on my very first foray into Burgundy in 1997 and having followed their wines closely ever since, it was good to return, albeit briefly, to taste through their 2012s. During that period, the biggest change has been David and Nicolas Rossignol’s conversion to biodynamics in 2004, a process that was being trialed during that first visit. They told me that they have fine-tuned their vinification in accordance, for example, using less pigeage than they once did, and this has resulted in a finer, more nuanced set of wines in recent years. Here, the harvest commenced on 27 September and finished on 4 October. Hail reduced their Beaune vineyards’ production by around 20% and their older vines suffered millerandage, though they found that the premier crus held up fine. I have always felt that their wines are a little under-rated by cognoscenti. While over the road, Denis Bachelet has perhaps unintentionally propagated a zealous, almost feverish following for his wines, Rossignol-Trapet perhaps has a more commercial bent and that used to be reflected in their good, but rarely great wines. Yet in the last three or vintages, so they have fine-tuned their style: ratcheted up a few levels towards, if not equal to that of Denis Bachelet and the village’s top tier of producers. Time to give these fine wines another look if you have not done so recently.
