2019 Domaine Rossignol-Trapet, Latricieres-Chambertin Grand Cru

The 2019 Latricières-Chambertin Grand Cru has a pure and engaging bouquet, the fruit slightly darker than Launay-Horiot's Latricières tasted alongside. Well-integrated oak commingles with briar and dried rose petal notes that lend complexity, with even a touch of rooibos becoming increasingly prominent. The palate is medium-bodied with sappy red fruit. Showing fine depth, this is impressive in terms of its typicité, in the sense that it could only originate from this climate, thanks to its structure and undercurrent of obduracy. This is a serious Grand Cru with very fine length. How do you make a wine feel so cool in a warm season? This was so shut down in barrel, but re-reading my note, I speculated that, if it could muster more substance, it would become something special—I just didn't anticipate to this extent. Tasted blind at the Burgfest tasting.

Less than 50% new oak. Barrel sample. Smudgy crimson. Ripe red fruits, sweet but zesty. Firm but remarkably smooth for such a young wine – the tannins seem to have resolved very quickly so this will be drinkable much younger than you might expect for a grand cru. The fruit is generous but there’s something missing: energy? (JH)