Joseph Roty Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru Cuvee de Tres Vieilles Vignes 2009 750ml

Good medium-deep red, a bit less saturated than the 2010. Slightly roasted on the nose, and less complex than the 2010, as much red as black fruit in character, offering very ripe, smoky aromas of cherry ganache, redcurrant and licorice. Fleshy, sweet and full on the palate, with its expressive flavors of redcurrant, cocoa powder, mocha, coffee, spices, mint and tobacco conveying an almost liqueur-like voluptuousness that’s somehow leavened by salinity. The wine’s new oak component is apparent today in the middle palate but its substantial fine-grained tannins are fully integrated. Spreads out impressively to saturate the palate on the long finish, which leaves behind a note of cherry pit and comes across as a touch aggressive following the 2010. Pierre-Jean Roty told me that the finished pH for his family’s Charmes-Chambertin is normally in the range of 3.4 to 3.5 and that this wine was not acidified. In fact, he noted that 2003 was the last vintage that was acidified here. (13.9% alcohol; 3.39 pH; this hot growing season yielded a full crop of 40 hectoliters per hectare, noted Pierre-Jean Roty)