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.
Vosne-Romanée Les Beaux Monts
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.
2007 Dujac Vosne-Romanée Les Beaux Monts
This was previously a small cuvée for the domaine – 0.024 hectares, replanted in 1987. The addition of the 0.5 ha Moillard plot changes that. The vines were neighbouring and much older so the character of the domaine’s wine is now changing. They have moved them from cane to spur pruning and in this transition phase for the vines they are experiencing low yields. On the nose there’s a taught beadth of red fruit that overlays a faint muskiness. Very silky in the mouth, understated creamy intensity (maybe it’s only understated because it follows the Clos de la Roche!) in the mid-palate. Again, a long, mineral and satisfying finish.
2007 Clavelier Bruno Vosne-Romanée Les Beaux Monts
2007 Grivot Jean Vosne-Romanée Les Beaux Monts
2007 Perrot-Minot Christophe Vosne-Romanée Les Beaux Monts
2004 Bertagna Vosne-Romanée Les Beaux Monts
1999 Potel Nicolas Vosne-Romanée Les Beaux Monts
I think that the majority of my previous Beaux-Monts have failed to inspire – this one managed to avoid that fate by some margin. Medium-plus cherry-red colour. A lovely nose that combines Vosne-spice with a dense base of ripe red fruit that slowly takes on a higher-toned aspect – still quite primary – but does develop a more caramel aspect with time. The style is that of a middle-weight prize-fighter, taught, lean muscle with no extra pounds. Quite fresh and intense, excellent acidity and well hidden tannins. Doesn’t quite show the intensity of finish of the Drouhin and Jadot wines but matches their ultimate length. A young and very interesting thoroughbred that my tasting partners rated even higher than me!