Jean-Marc Roulot Meursault Genévières 2020 1500ml Magnum

Roulot owns no Genevrières, so Jean-Marc buys the grapes and makes the wine exactly as he makes the domaine's own, and says so on the label.

The label states it plainly: this wine comes exclusively from an achat en raisins, a purchase of grapes, which lets the house keep faithfully to its habits of vinification and élevage. Jean-Marc Roulot started this négociant line under his own name in 2014 to add climats the family domaine never held. Enoteca, the Japanese importer, confirms that from fermentation through élevage to bottling nothing differs from the domaine bottlings, and the Meursault specialist Etoile adds that the fruit is bought as whole bunches and pressed in Roulot's own cellar. Genevrières itself is a 16.48-hectare premier cru whose name points to the juniper that once grew there. Enoteca describes an east-south-east slope at 260 to 280 metres on white marl over a hard limestone topsoil, and calls it the most popular of Meursault's premier crus; the Bourgogne wine board lists it among the appellation's 19 premier cru climats.

2020 was an early year. Enoteca reports that Roulot began picking around the middle of August and that the vintage shows restrained fruit set against its acidity, a step above a normal year in its view. Berry Bros. & Rudd lists the finished wine at 12.5% alcohol and describes it as dry and full bodied. This is the magnum, and Enoteca carried the 1500 ml format of the 2020 alongside the 750 ml.

Domaine Roulot dates from 1830 and Jean-Marc is the sixth generation in the cellar. When his father Guy died in 1982 at 53, Jean-Marc was 26 and studying acting in Paris; Ted Lemon and then his cousin Franck Grux made the wines until he came home in the winter of 1989, and he has kept acting since, with more than fifty film and television roles, as Jay McInerney recounted in Fujingaho in 2022.

In the glass

Allen Meadows of Burghound, as quoted by The World of Wine, gave the 2020 93 points and found "a whiff of exotic character" on "distinctly cool and restrained aromas of Asian-style tea, green apple, citrus zest and pretty floral elements", then "almost painfully intense yet plump and fleshy middle weight flavors" and a "bitter lemon-suffused finish", calling it understated. Enoteca's description runs the same way: full fruit, minerality and the flavour of the barrel sitting together.

When to open

Berry Bros. & Rudd rates the 2020 not ready and gives a drinking window of 2028 to 2052. The Bourgogne wine board suggests serving Meursault at 12 to 14°C.

At the table

The Bourgogne wine board pairs Meursault with grilled lobster, crawfish or king prawns in sauce, or with veal or poultry in white sauce.

Quick facts

Provenance

Sourced from the Japanese importer.

Sources: Label (Jean-Marc Roulot); Enoteca (Japanese importer); BIVB Bourgogne wine board; Berry Bros. & Rudd; Burghound (A. Meadows, as quoted by The World of Wine); Fujingaho (J. McInerney); Wine shop Etoile