Domaine Emmanuel Rouget Vosne-Romanee Cros Parantoux 2015

An abandoned hillside

Cros Parantoux is a premier cru of 1.01 hectares in Vosne-Romanee, high on the slope just above the northern end of the grand cru Richebourg. Its soil is a thin layer of clay and limestone over rock, poor, stony and cold. A land survey of 1827 shows almost exactly the same borders it has today; a 1920 survey gave it 1.15 hectares. In 1855 the Burgundy classification by Jules Lavalle ranked it a third-class growth.

The vineyard fell out of use after phylloxera struck in the late 19th century, and during the Second World War it was used to grow Jerusalem artichokes. Henri Jayer, a grower from Vosne-Romanee, began working vines for the Camuzet family around 1945 in return for half the harvest. According to one detailed history of the site, he bought his first plots of Cros Parantoux in 1951, began replanting in 1953 and bought the last plot in 1970; another account says he bought it piece by piece from the Camuzet family. To plant it he used explosives to break up the limestone.

Jayer ended up with about 70 percent of the vineyard, roughly 0.72 hectares. The rest, about 0.29 hectares, belongs to Domaine Meo-Camuzet. Jayer first bottled a wine entirely from Cros Parantoux with the 1978 vintage.

From Henri Jayer to the Rouget family

Henri Jayer, born in 1922, became one of the most celebrated winemakers in Burgundy. He rejected heavy use of chemicals, always destemmed his grapes, did not filter his wines, and is credited with inventing the cold soak, a few days of maceration at about 10 degrees Celsius before fermentation to draw out aroma and color while limiting harsh tannins. He liked to say that a wine that tastes of oak is not over-oaked but under-wined.

Under French pension rules Jayer had to choose between retiring and losing his pension. Sources date his official retirement to 1995 or 1996; in 1996 he passed his vineyards to his nephew, Emmanuel Rouget, while remaining involved with part of the wine, and he kept making small amounts under his own name until the 2001 vintage. He died in Dijon on September 20, 2006, aged 84.

Rouget, whom Jayer trained, carried on his uncle's methods: very low yields, cold soaking before fermentation, 100 percent new oak and no filtration. The domaine is based in Flagey-Echezeaux and also makes Echezeaux grand cru, Vosne-Romanee Les Beaumonts and Nuits-Saint-Georges. By the time of the 2015, the next generation was in charge of the work: Emmanuel's son Guillaume had made the wines since the 2011 vintage, and his son Nicolas had run the vineyards since 2008.

2015: a warm year and a great one

2015 is remembered as a great year for red Burgundy. One critic called Rouget's Cros Parantoux one of the high points of the vintage, and wrote that the vineyard's cool mesoclimate had married to great effect with the balmy year. Another described a wine that embraced the summer's warmth without losing precision or a sense of place.

It was also the year Burgundy's patchwork of named vineyard plots, more than 1,000 of them, was inscribed on UNESCO's list on July 4, 2015, two months before the harvest.

What the critics found

From barrel, Burghound scored the 2015 92-95, noting a parcel of vines 55 years old and more, a discreet use of oak, cool and airy aromas of purple fruit, plum, spice and tea, and sleek, mineral flavors that felt like rolling pebbles around the mouth, less concentrated than the domaine's Echezeaux but with more minerality and acidity.

In April 2018 William Kelley of the Wine Advocate gave the bottled wine 96 points, calling it superb, with aromas of spice, game bird and wild red and black fruit, a gourmand, full-bodied palate of bottomless depth and a bright line of acidity. In August 2021 Neal Martin, tasting it blind in Beaune, scored it 98, describing plush blueberry and raspberry fruit with touches of iodine and saying he had fallen head over heels for it in barrel. He suggested drinking it from 2022 to 2050.

A cult wine's market

Cros Parantoux carries Jayer's legend, and that drives its price. In June 2018 an auction of Jayer's own cellar, 215 lots from 1970 to 2001, brought a record 34.5 million Swiss francs. In June 2021 a twelve-bottle case of Jayer's 1999 Cros Parantoux sold at auction for 561,200 Swiss francs, about $560,000.

Rouget's own bottlings trade far below Jayer's but well above most premier crus. In October 2026 one merchant offered a single bottle of the 2015 from a collector at $5,721.00, and an investment firm quoted a twelve-bottle case at $42,300. These are asking figures, not sales.

The numbers

Vineyard

1.01 ha premier cru (1.15 ha in a 1920 survey)

Rouget holding

About 0.72 ha (0.7177 ha)

Meo-Camuzet holding

About 0.29 to 0.30 ha

Rouget production

About 3,000 to 3,500 bottles a year

Blend

100% Pinot Noir

Wine Advocate (William Kelley)

96, April 2018

Neal Martin

98, August 2021

Burghound (barrel)

92-95

Timeline

1. 1827

   A land survey shows Cros Parantoux with almost the same borders it has today.

2. 1855

   Jules Lavalle's classification ranks Cros Parantoux a third-class growth.

3. 1922

   Henri Jayer is born in Vosne-Romanee.

4. 1945

   Jayer begins sharecropping vines for the Camuzet family.

5. 1951

   Jayer buys his first plots of the abandoned Cros Parantoux, by one account.

6. 1953

   Replanting of Cros Parantoux begins.

7. 1970

   Jayer buys his last plot of the vineyard.

8. 1978

   Jayer's first bottling entirely from Cros Parantoux.

9. 1996

   Jayer passes his vineyards to his nephew, Emmanuel Rouget.

10. 2001

    Henri Jayer's last vintage.

11. Sep 20, 2006

    Henri Jayer dies in Dijon, aged 84.

12. 2008

    Nicolas Rouget takes charge of the domaine's vineyards.

13. 2011

    Guillaume Rouget becomes winemaker, starting with the 2011 vintage.

14. Apr 2018

    The Wine Advocate scores the 2015 Cros Parantoux 96.

15. Jun 2018

    Jayer's personal cellar sells at auction for 34.5 million Swiss francs.

16. Aug 2021

    Neal Martin scores the 2015 98 at a blind tasting in Beaune.

The world in 2015

• Jan 7, 2015

  Gunmen attack the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo.

• Apr 25, 2015

  A magnitude 7.8 earthquake strikes Nepal.

• Jul 4, 2015

  UNESCO lists the Climats of Burgundy as a protected cultural landscape.

• Jul 14, 2015

  NASA's New Horizons flies past Pluto, and Iran agrees to long-term limits on its nuclear program.

• Jul 20, 2015

  Cuba and the United States restore full diplomatic relations.

• Sep 14, 2015

  LIGO detects gravitational waves for the first time.

Price record

This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.

By reference price, Domaine Emmanuel Rouget Vosne-Romanee Cros Parantoux 2015 is number 16 of 100 in the wine entries of the FLOAT 100. 12 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (90 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• During the Second World War, Cros Parantoux was used to grow Jerusalem artichokes.
• Henri Jayer used explosives to break up the limestone before he could plant the vineyard.
• Jayer is credited with inventing the cold soak, a chilled maceration before fermentation.
• Jayer handed his vines to his nephew because French pension rules forced him to choose between retiring and losing his pension.
• Only two domaines make Cros Parantoux: Emmanuel Rouget, with about 70 percent of the vineyard, and Meo-Camuzet.
• A single case of Jayer's 1999 Cros Parantoux sold for 561,200 Swiss francs in 2021.