The “secret” wine of Domaine Armand Rousseau

Domaine Armand Rousseau is one of the most well known and prestigious domaines in Burgundy.

The wines from this Domaine are known all over the world … except one almost “secret” wine. It is a Gevrey-Chambertin like many other wines from Rousseau … and the first vintage was 2012 … it’s made from vineyards surrounding a large building in Gevrey … the old Chateau de Gevrey-Chambertin,

The wine is of cause Domaine Armand Rousseau, Gevrey Chambertin Cuvée Clos du Chateau … lets take a close look at this unknown cuvee.

Chateau de Gevrey-Chambertin

The Chateau de Gevrey-Chambertin has been neglected for generations, and the state of both the buildings and the vineyards were quite poor when the estate was sold in 2012. 

The Chateau itself is a huge building – see photo below, and therefore very expensive to maintain let alone renovate. 

The construction of Chateau de Gevrey-Chambertin began in the 11th century and the building process was not completed before the 13th century. The Chateau have however been rebuild several times over the years. 

The Chateau was under the ownership of the Abbaye de Cluny for many years. As many other buildings belonging to the Benedictine Cluny order it was sold as Bien National during the revolution, and came under private ownership in 1791.

The first known private owner was the Masson family from Jura, and they owned the estate from 1858 to 2012 until it was sold off to he Chinese businessman Louis Ng.

Mr. Louis Ng is a very dedicate burgundy collector, who has travelled to Burgundy for more than 30 years. The Chateau is now being restored, a huge task, and most of the vineyards are now under the management of Eric Rousseau – from Domaine Armand Rousseau. 

The vineyard holdings consist of 1.36ha Gevrey Chambertin village surrounding the Chateau, a 0.30 ha plot of Geverey-Chambertin Laveaux St. Jacques and a 0.11 ha plot of Charmes Chambertin – all these vineyards are managed by Rousseau¹. The Laveaux St. Jacques and the Charmes Chambertin goes into the regular Rousseau wines from these terroirs, while the village wine is made and bottled as a separate cuvee. 

In addition to these vineyards there are a few other plots managed by a young vigneron in Gevrey¹ – in total the Chateau have 2,3 ha of vineyards.

Gevrey Chambertin Cuvée Clos du Chateau – the plots

The Chateau de Gevrey-Chambertin is located in the nothern part of Gevrey-Chambertin – see map below.