This is completely different from the Bèze aromatically speaking as here the nose is brooding and recalcitrant and only aggressive swirling liberates fresh scents of spice, wet stone, game and dark berry fruits. There is outstanding richness to the powerful and impressively scaled flavors that possess an abundance of dry extract that imparts a velvety quality to the mid-palate while also buffering the tightly wound core of firm tannins on the driving mineral-inflected and hugely persistent finish. This is a stunner of a wine and one of the great wines of the 2011 vintage.

Tasted blind at the Burgundy 2011 horizontal tasting in Beaune, you have to get past a little reduction on the nose of Rousseau’s Chambertin 2011 that is animally and feral, developing a strong estuarine influence - mudflats, kelp and sea salt. The palate is medium-bodied with crisp, slightly chalky tannins and fine precision. Grippy in the mouth and more masculine with a precise, mineral finish. This is very fine but it needs 3-4 years to show its true nature. - Neal Martin