Already in its third generation, Christophe Roumier upholds his family's high standards and every year creates an excellent new wine. It all started in 1924, when Christoph's grandfather Georges Roumier took the first step in Chambolle Musigny and began to create his first great Burgundy wine. Almost 30 years later, Jean-Marie Roumier took over the winery. He expanded his own acreage by purchasing additional Premier Cru vineyards, including the Clos de la Bussière vineyard in Morey and other valuable Grand Cru vineyards in Bonnes Mares, Corton-Charlemagne, Musigny, Morey-St-Denis, Clos Vougeot appellations and Ruchottes-Chambertin.
Since 1982 the Domaine is under the direction of Christophe Roumier. The winery currently has about 12 hectares of outstanding acreage and has earned through its style a place in the front row of the great names of Burgundy. Every Burgundy wine from Roumier is regarded as a top wine, which is mentioned in the same breath as layers such as Romanée Conti, Comte Lafon and Ponsot. The relatively small acreage ranges even in productive years only for a limited number of bottles and the demand regularly exceeds the supply. Therefore, the wines of Domaine Roumier are unfortunately rarely available freely and according to the usual market laws also expensive. The term expensive for these wines should rather be replaced by the word 'valuable", because the buyer gets an excellent wine, which more than justifies the superficially high price.
The success of Roumier, however, is not only a result of the great locations that offer the very best conditions for the perfect cultivation of the grape variety Pinot. All vineyards are consistently managed in the spirit of "La lutte raisonée". This means a natural approach to the valuable resources and the abandonment of the use of artificial fertilizers and herbicides. Natural processes also determine the rhythm of the vinification in the cellar, and no foreign yeasts are used to start the fermentation process. The fermentation is temperature-controlled and the must remains on the mash for a period of 18 to 24 days. For the subsequent expansion in the barrel, a period of 15 to 18 months is used. The philosophy of Christophe Roumier is to keep the influence of woody notes low in order to moderately deepen, but not to alienate the natural flavor play of Pino Noir. New barrels are therefore rarely needed. Their share in the Chambolle-Musigny is only around 15 to 25 percent, in the Premier Crus between 25 to 40 percent, only in the Grands Crus Christophe Roumier occasionally used up to 50 percent new barrels. When filling bottles, excessive filtration is not required. The result of the elaborate cellar work are elegant and sometimes very expensive wines with finesse depth and multi-faceted harmony. They open up the complex variety of the vine Pinot Noir and surprise with clear notes of the respective terroir. All wines have a very large storage potential. This is particularly true of the Grand Cru locations Bonnes Mares, whose wines have a rich, natural Tanningerüst and whose broad range of notes comes to full advantage only after a few years.
Nearly all of Domaine Roumier's portfolio consists of Grand Cru and Premier Cru wines of the highest quality, which have given the winery an internationally recognized reputation. Not only does Christophe Roumier want to be seen as a supplier of expensive wines, but with his simple "Bourgogne" also offers a remarkable drop that is wonderful as a starter wine in the fascinating world of Pinot Noir and Burgundy wine.
Along with a small handful of other possibilities, the Roumier Musigny is a persuasive wine-of-the-vintage candidate, which is pretty remarkable given how good the 2015 vintage is. A kaleidoscopically broad and complex nose features a brilliant array that consists of lavender, violet and rose petal nuanced with hoisin, spiced tea and black cherry liqueur. The naturally sweet, pure and ultra-refined broad-shouldered flavors possess a highly seductive mid-palate that then tightens up very quickly on the hugely long finish that is punctuated by an almost aggressive minerality. Simply put, this indisputably built-to-age effort is sublime.
Score: 96/99 Allen Meadows, Burghound.com (65), January 2017
A deft application of wood sets off pretty, pure, elegant and airy aromas of both red and dark pinot fruit that are cut with varying degrees of earth, floral and spice wisps plus an interesting hint of orange peel. The rich, sleek and beautifully delineated middle weight flavors also flash good minerality, all wrapped in a firm and serious but not especially austere finale where the only nit is a hint of warmth.
Score: 91 Allen Meadows, Burghound.com (73), January 2019
Tasted blind at the Burgfest tasting in Beaune, the 2013 Bonnes Mares Grand Cru from Christophe Roumier has a ripe redcurrant, kirsch and vanilla-tinged bouquet, high-toned but not volatile, generous if missing some mineralité. The palate is defined by its very smooth texture: seamless and so lithe in the mouth. There is impressive purity here and while you could describe this as "showy" (not an adjective that I often apply to Christophe's wines), that is meant in a positive way. There is the substance to suggest this will age with style -- a sophisticated and thoroughly enjoyable Bonnes-Mares to savor. Tasted September 2016.
Score: 93 Neal Martin, Wine Advocate, November 2016
The 2005 Chambolle-Musigny Les Cras smells of ripe blackberry, raspberry, forest floor and chalk dust. A polished, creamy, yet palpably chalky and brightly fresh-fruited palate offers a sumptuous saturation of black and red fruits with inner-mouth aromatic accents of cherry pit, pistachio, flowers and citrus zest. This shows wonderful primary fruit intensity and energy, exciting length, and the promise of continued poise and polish for at least another 10-12 years. One senses that Christophe Roumier considers 2005 a high point of his career, and my visit with him was among the high points of my recent trip. He describes this as "a classic vintage lending itself to very calm, classic vinification," which given the opportunities afforded by perfectly healthy, firm, dry, ripe fruit involved triage almost solely to remove ladybugs, and included around 25% whole clusters in the fermenters at the Premier Cru level and 50% at that of Grand Cru.
Score: 93/94 David Schildknecht, Wine Advocate (170), April 2007
