2017 Georges Roumier, Morey St Denis Clos de La Bussiere 1er Cru 750ml

WA90-92

The 2017 Morey-Saint-Denis 1er Cru Clos de la Bussière is a real success, and decidedly reminiscent of the domaine's excellent 2007. Offering up aromas of sweet red berries, warm spices, peony and subtle soil tones, the wine is medium to full-bodied, ample and fleshy, with a fine core of fruit that cloaks its rich but fine-grained tannic chassis. While it's an elegant rendition of the Clos de la Bussière, this always needs bottle age. The 2017 vintage is very strong for the Domaine Georges Roumier, with the wines somewhat evocative of their 2007 counterparts—wines which were, as Roumier followers will be keenly aware, very much among the best of the vintage in that year. Elevage is a leisurely affair chez Roumier, with comparatively late malolactic fermentation, so the true extent of what Christophe Roumier has achieved this year will only be apparent once the wines are in bottle, but the only thing that's in question is just how good the wines will be. As I reported when I tasted these same wines earlier this year, yields in 2017 averaged a modest 32 hectoliters per hectare across the board, with a larger crop at the village level and less in the premiers and grands crus. Thankfully, after several successive small crops, the generous 2017 and 2018 vintages have at last left a little less empty space in the Roumier cellar, which is great news.