92pts Wine Enthusiast

Whiffs of violet and cherry blossom lend floral, perfumed tones to juicy mulberry and cherry flavors in this wine. Moderately full in body and etched by whispers of sweet spice and licorice, this fresh-fruited wine finishes on ruffles of smoky, charry tannins. Approachable young, the wine should hold well through 2030.

Winemaker Notes

Beautiful dress, very ripe red fruit aromas.  This Santenay is a food wine, structured, powerful. 

Wine pairings with red meats, game, and cheeses.

On the southern extremity of the Santenay vineyard is this climate, on the border with the Maranges. The name comes from a certain Mr Rousseau, the owner of this clos at some point. Despite the orthographic difference we suppose today that the Petit Clos Rousseau, Grand Clos Rousseau in Santenay and the Clos Roussot in Maranges were owned by the same family et were divided during the successions. Another explanation is the French sobriquet "roussot" : the redhead.

With a beautiful exposition to the south-east and a relief marked by many cracks, the Clos Rousseau is an excellent terroir. The soil is more thick and clayey than Beauregard and covered of limestone marls which drain the moisture and help to freshen up the vines during the summer. This gives a rich wine, well structured and with a great cellaring potential.

The Girardin family has been in Burgundy since 1570. Vincent and Jacque's father Jean Girardin divided up his estate in 1982 to each of his four children. Three of the four: Yves, Vincent and Jacques continued the family tradition of farming and winemaking. Jacques took hold of just 3 hectares of vines in Santenay and Savigny-les-Beaune and today the holdings stretch into Pommard and Chassagne-Montrachet totalling 17 hectares that are organically farmed, though not certified. Jacques handed over the domaine to Justin in 2012, leaving the family holdings in great hands.

Justin's philosophy is simple – let nature express itself as much as possible in the vineyard and ultimately the wine, while watching over and respecting the land. So the wine becomes a living product, the fruit of exceptional land and of an age-old expertise, which is renewed and modernized with each generation.