Clos de la Roche is the largest grand cru in Morey-Saint-Denis, and this 2019 comes from Olivier Bernstein, the Beaune micro-négociant who works almost entirely with grand and premier cru fruit from the Côte de Nuits. It is a deep, spicy red from a drought year that kept surprising freshness.
About This Wine
At a little over 16 hectares, Clos de la Roche is a sizeable grand cru by Morey standards, and it tends to give firm, dark-fruited wines with a stony edge. The 2019 season in Burgundy was dry and warm, with poor flowering and drought stress cutting yields hard. Berries were small and thick-skinned, so the wines have concentration, yet low pH and plenty of tartaric acid kept them lively. Bernstein makes his Clos de la Roche in very small volumes, typically only a handful of barrels.
Tasting Profile
- Nose: Wild cherry and spiced blueberry, with dried flowers, a little toasted oak and freshly turned earth.
- Palate: Intense and precise, carrying the dark berry fruit over a mineral, savoury core and fine, firm tannins.
- Finish: Long, with red berry fruit, spice and a stony, savoury tail.
Serving & Food
Serve at 16 to 17°C in a large Burgundy bowl, and decant for an hour or so if you open it before 2027. We would expect it to keep well into the 2030s. Try it with roast pigeon and cherries, braised ox cheek, or a wedge of aged Comté.
How to Enjoy
A grand cru for the cellar, and a strong choice for a dinner built around game or slow-cooked beef.
Product Details
Producer: Olivier Bernstein
Country: France
Region: Morey-Saint-Denis, Côte de Nuits, Burgundy
Appellation: Clos de la Roche Grand Cru
Vintage: 2019
Grape: Pinot Noir
Format: 750mL
About the Maison
Olivier Bernstein came to wine by a roundabout route. He began his working life in international management for the French rail operator behind the TGV, then decided wine mattered more to him and enrolled at the viticulture and oenology school in Beaune. His apprenticeship started with a harvest at Domaine Rouget in Vosne-Romanée in 2002, where he met the late Henri Jayer, a figure whose low-yield, hands-on approach still shapes how many Côte de Nuits growers think about Pinot Noir.
That early grounding in the vineyard shows in how the house operates today. Most of the fruit is bought as grapes rather than as finished wine, and he and his small team stay closely involved with how each parcel is farmed through the season.