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. Tasted: Jan 01, 2008 Score: 99 Drink: 2025+ Issue 29 Allen Meadows; Burghound

Charles Rousseau's son Eric, who makes the wines, calls 2005 "an easy vintage. It was never very hot but there were certainly periods of sustained warm weather with relatively cool evenings that permitted uniform ripening and good acid retention. It was clear that there was an abundant fruit set so we dropped a lot of bunches through a green harvest. The harvest was exceptional as it was super clean with no rot or under ripe berries, which is to say that we had unusually good uniformity within the bunches. It was even cleaner than 2002 so the sorting table workers really didn't have much to do. There was essentially no sorting work and even with the generous yields, we had excellent sugars that ranged from 12.5 to 13.1%. The skins were thick and there was an impressively high solid to liquid ratios for most wines. As such, we worked more with pump overs than punch downs over the 16 to 19 days of total cuvaison. In contrast to most other vintages, I used no new oak at all up through and including the Ruchottes though as usual, the Clos St. Jacques, Cham and Bèze saw 100% new wood. For us, 2005 produced more structured wines than in 2002 yet the balance is every bit as good, perhaps even better and I really like the sense of harmony the wines have already." As the commentaries suggest, the Rousseau '05s are terrific but as good as they are, the '04s are perhaps even better in terms of their relative quality to the limitations of the 2004 vintage. The present plan is to bottle as usual in July though some of the lower level wines might be bottled in May, depending on how the fruit matures.