2016 Domaine Joseph Roty Griotte Chambertin Grand Cru
Full-bodied and vibrant, this unfurls in the glass to exhibit a seriously expressive bouquet of cherries, dark chocolate, and forest floor. The palate is saturated, voluminous and layered with succulent fruit, game and toast. Plenty of complexity to keep the drinker entirely engaged through all the twists and turns, this is a well-plotted Pinot Noir that wants to sit a few years in your library before you dive in.
Wine Advocate
Tasted from bottle, the 2016 Griotte-Chambertin Grand Cru is showing very well indeed, unfurling in the glass with a complex bouquet of cherries, dark chocolate, forest floor, raw cocoa and wild plums. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, ample and vibrant, with a deep core of succulent fruit, fine-boned and chalky structuring tannins and a long, energetic finish. This extensive tasting with affable eleventh-generation vigneron Pierre-Jean Roty—who took the helm at this discrete family owned domaine following his brother's untimely passing in 2015—took in vintages 2017 and 2016. Both are successful years for this important estate, the 2017s supple and charming, gaining in depth and dimension as one ascends the appellation hierarchy; the 2016s pure and vibrant, evoking the 2010s, with brighter acids and greater concentration than the more open-knit 2017s. Roty fans will be familiar with the approach: a high proportion of old vines; minimal use of chemical treatments and worked soils in the vineyards; destemmed grapes, fermented in concrete tanks; and élevage in generous percentages of smoky new oak for 15-16 months. My sense is that today's wines are suppler than the Roty wines of yesteryear. They're less forbidding in their youth than their formidable reputation might suggest: even the grands crus boast such generosity of fruit that their rich structuring tannins are frequently concealed. But they appear to develop just as gracefully as ever. Readers shouldn't hesitat.
VN95Vinous
Bright medium ruby. Pure, primary aromas of black fruits complicated by flinty, crushed-rock minerality; one can smell the depth of this wine. At once silky and powerful, and a step beyond the Mazy-Chambertin in complexity, offering sappy flavors of dark fruits, flowers, spices, licorice and saline minerality. This deep, full-bodied 2016 finishes with suave tannins and terrific length.