Roche de Bellene Chambertin Grand Cru

2008

WA 90-91+: Reflecting three barrels from two sources, Potel's Bellene 2008 Chambertin smells of ripe cherry, chocolate, and rose petals; offers rich fruit and a plush texture; but also incorporates tannins that convey a degree of gum-numbing -such as I encountered in other wines of this collection - to the otherwise sweetly persistent finish. This is thus another of those impressively rich Roche de Bellene 2008s that will nonetheless need to gain complexity and finesse as well as diminish in tannic abrasion if it is to outperform in bottle my present rating from barrel. But, to be sure, it is a wine that looks likely to hold together for at least a decade.

2007

WA 91: Roche de Bellene's 2007 Chambertin is quite leathery and gamey on the nose but incorporates a satisfyingly fresh ripe abundance of black fruits as well as site-typical rose petal. Sweetness of fruit and inner-mouth perfume follow strongly into a finish where the hirsute notes so prominent in the nose are put into the background as subtle elements of complexity, and a soy-like note adds saliva inducing savor and umami too often missing from too many of this wine's stable mates. With its fine-grained tannins and relative polish, this is a Chambertin one can enjoy early but that ought to reward a decade of cellaring as well.