There was a green harvest here over the summer, and in fact, for the Fichots vineyard, more fruit was taken off the vine during the 2017 green harvest than was taken in at final harvest in 2016 — an insight into how badly the producers of the Savigny-Pernand sector were hit in 2016.
Harvesting began around 6-8 September. As always here, the reds were entirely destemmed. There was very little chaptalization. The malic acidities were fairly low, and the malo-lactic fermentations were deliberately delayed here.
Year after year, Rollin’s wines, especially for those willing to give them a little time in the cellar, demonstrate that the wines in this corner of the Côte de Beaune have their own style and can provide excellent quality and value.
We start with the reds, which I tasted from tank samples or bottle:
2017 Bourgogne-Hautes Côtes de Beaune
This wine is medium-weight and fleshy with freshness to its cassis and red fruits. 88/A
2017 Pernand-Vergelesses
The Pernand has mineral and spicy red fruit aromas and flavors. The mouth is fleshy but fresh and there’s good length here. (88-90)
2017 Savigny-les-Beaune Aux Grands Liards
The Savigny, Grands Liards is ripe, round, and smooth with minerality, sensuality, and red fruits. Good length, too. (88-91)
2017 Aloxe-Corton
Rollin’s Aloxe is complex in the nose with smoky aspects. The mouth is medium-weight and fleshy with good acidity and a bit more power than the preceding wines. Good length here, and some salinity to complement the red fruits. (88-91)
2017 Pernand-Vergelesses 1er Cru Les Fichots
The Pernand-Fichots is round and fleshy with blueberry fruit, purity, and precision. There’s also good concentration and acidity. Give this wine some time in the cellar, and my appreciation of it here may be too low. (89-91)
2017 Pernand-Vergelesses 1er Cru Île des Vergelesses
The Pernand-Île des Vergelesses shows more finesse than the Fichots and is lighter on the palate. There’s some tannic underpinning and good length. It, too, is a wine to hold in the cellar for a while. (89-92)
The whites:
2017 Bourgogne-Aligoté
Rollin always makes one of the best Aligoté’s around, and 2017 is no exception. The wine is crisp, spicy, pure, and racy with excellent acidity, good concentration, liveliness, and freshness. 90/A
2017 Bourgogne - Hautes Côtes de Beaune
This wine has a bit of sucrosity that one finds in many 2017 whites, giving it extra roundness and making it less crisp than the Aligoté. Nevertheless, there’s good minerality here to go with a hint of tropical fruit. Raised 2/3 in wood, 1/3 in tank. 86/B
2017 Pernand-Vergelesses
The Pernand has wet stone aromas. The mouth shows slight sucrosity, some salinity, apple fruit, and good freshness. 88/B+
2017 Pernand-Vergelesses Les Cloux
Rollin’s Pernand, Cloux is light, pure, mineral, and bright with a slight creaminess of texture. There’s good length here, too. The wine needs a bit more time to develop. 88/B+
2017 Pernand-Vergelesses 1er Cru Sous Frétille
The Pernand-Sous Frétille has floral notes, and more elegance than the Cloux, along with length and minerality. This is quite a successful wine. 90/B+
2017 Corton-Charlemagne
I tasted the Corton-Charlemagne two weeks before it was to be bottled.The nose is stony. There’s some sucrosity giving roundness to the wine, but also good tension and noble austerity. This wine should drink well after some time in the cellar, say 5 to 10 years. (92-95)