Medium-plus colour. The nose here is of just faintly roasted, spice-edged deep red fruit – not roasted enough to be off-putting but enough to be slightly sub-optimal for me – but it’s wide and involving and rather forward too. In the mouth this has a concentrated, velvet texture that if you really roll the wine around in your mouth becomes slowly a little astringent – but that’s your choice! Full flavoured with plenty of intensity and a very good underlying acidity – there’s almost a hint of almond flavour in the finish, bitter chocolate too, which is probably barrel-derived – but eventually majors of a mouth-watering mineral note. Highly drinkable despite a nose that punches you, rather than seduces you.
Rion Daniel
2007 Rion Daniel Vosne-Romanée Les Beaumonts
1999 Rion Daniel Vosne-Romanée Les Beaux Monts
Medium, medium plus colour. The nose starts with a waft of dark, dank, slightly reduced, earthy toast that fades to be replaced with a slowly building crescendo of dark and impressive cherry fruit. Good, perhaps slightly lifted acidity abets the mid-palate intensity and length. The fruit in the mid-palate has a nice high-toned impression and the lingering note of the finish is stony/mineral. Acid-o-philes will like this a lot, I did!
2007 Rion Daniel Vosne-Romanée Les Beaux Monts
Medium cherry-red. The nose starts with ultra-young barrel-type fruit aromas, Slowly it beds down to good red fruit with a very understated spice background and eventually lovely red berries. Fresh, slightly plump red fruit that finds an additional if understated mid-palate dimension, relatively fine tannin and a lingering finish. Not much power here, but fine and elegant. Very pretty.
1997 Rion Daniel Nuits St.Georges Les Vignes Rondes
Medium, medium-plus colour still. The nose is full of sweet-edged undergrowth and below there’s still a dark edge of oak-toast. In the mouth there’s a silkiness and good, if not totally seamless acidity. The dark flavours mirror the nose but have a nice extra creamy dimension, there’s still a bitter-chocolate edge to the tannins too. No sharp edges and only just beginning to enter its drinking window, despite its oaky beginings being still on display, this is becoming a very above average 1997.