Vougeraie – 2014

Update 24.12.2015(17.12.2015)billn

DSC08784Tasted in Premeaux with Pierre Vincent, 16 November, 2015.

Domaine de la Vougeraie
Rue de l’Église
Premeaux
21700 Nuits St.Georges
Tel: +33 3 80 62 48 25
www.domainedelavougeraie.com

With the resources of JC Boisset this domaine continues to grow. Today there are 42 hectares delivering 35 cuvées; the most recent of which are the whites ex Girardin and the Henri Clerc estate, but also the roughly 1 hectare parcel of vines, bought in 2013, and replanted this year, at the top of the hill in Volnay. On the side of these Volnay vines towards Monthélie, they are officially lieu-dit Clos des Chênes, villages, but most of the parcel is actually lieu-dit Ez Blanches, villages. It seems that they are allowed to name the whole cuvée Ez Blanches, so that’s the way they will go once the grapes are ready – anyway they can’t actually label it as Clos des Chênes because of the 1er cru of the same name. Despite lots of important new whites, Vougeraie remain a 70% red wine domaine.

Pierre on 2015:
“2015 was a dream; perfect from Gevrey to Bâtard. Our worst triage was Montée Rouge with 3% – it’s normally 30%! We started on the 28th August for whites, the 2nd sept for reds. All were concentrated, and we had only one problem and that was the yields in reds. 40 hl/ha was achieved for whites, more like 25 hl/ha for the reds…”

Pierre on 2014:
“Better yields, and a very good vintage. Of course there was hail, but sectors of Nuits, Vougeot to Gevrey was really super quality in 2014. It was important not to harvest the whites too early in 14.”

The wines…

Pierre has slowly been moderating his use of new oak and in 2014 there was a maximum of 40% new oak used in the reds, 30% for whites….

2014 Bourgogne Pinot Noir Terres de Famille
Assembled from vines around Vougeot, Hautes Côtes de Nuits, Hautes Côtes de Beaune near Santenay, including about 20% villages with Montée Rouge and Pierre Blanche with 20% whole-clusters, 25% new oak which was bottled just before harvest.
Bright and pretty. Some delicacy and sweetness. A little structure but this is supple and shows tasty, mouth-watering flavour. Finishes well. Very good.

2014 Côte de Beaune La Pierre Blanche
From above Beaune Grèves – 30% lost to hail, so no whole-clusters, 30% new oak
Deeper, darker fruit – very attractive. Larger scaled, lovely fruit here. Super intense persistence – just excellent.

2014 Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Les Marconnets
30% new oak.
A finer, elegant nose, but also much more discreet. Wide, fresh, quite silky, high-toned red fruit, less deep, but from the mid-palate there are lots of deep, almost structural flavour with a hint of bitter chocolate. Super.

2014 Pommard Petits Noizons
Direction Beaune, near Charmots, destemmed due to hail.
A hint floral, deep but not wide – a certain elegance. Bigger, more concentrated but with fine energy. Super intensity in the mid-palate and into the finish. Excellent.

2014 Gevrey-Chambertin
An assembly of 5 parcels
More open, a little spicy, some depth too – nicely complex. Some reduction. Really mouth-filling but only with a hint of plushness to the texture. This will be super in an open, wide, clean and complex vernacular… Lots of bitter chocolate in the finish.

2014 Gevrey-Chambertin Les Evocelles
50% whole-clusters.
Much deeper, without reduction – then a super floral dimension blossoms. Bigger in scale again, without weight. Super elegant, silky and with a building complexity – brilliant villages, a hint saline… A superb finish for the label…
2014 Chambolle-Musigny
7 different parcels including Baudes and Gruenchers 1ers. 50% whole-clusters.
Cliché round, floral, super pretty nose. There’s a hint of silky stricture, but there is width, and really fine concentration, texture and a 1er cru level of complexity. Bravo.

2014 Nuits St.Georges 1er Corvées Pagets
Higher tones, spicy fresh nose, a growing depth of aroma too. A cool fruit but beautiful width, texture and complexity. Super finishing intensity and a silkiness of texture rare in Premeaux. Encore bravo!

2014 Nuits St.Georges 1er Damodes
Deeper, warmer, spicier. More welcoming, rounder, warmer – comfort wine – less overtly complex but certainly as long as the Pagets. Super…

2014 Corton Clos du Roi
70 yo vines, small grapes so lots of whole clusters – here 60%.
A wide, silky but modest nose. An extra sweetness, width, some salinity, waves of flavour. Pure 2014. Very, very good.

2014 Clos de Vougeot
Two parcels, one at the bottom, and the other near the entrance to the Château. 80% whole-clusters plus 40% new oak.
A pure fruit coulis, wide, energetic, lean muscle, lots of complexity. Really excellent in the mid-palate, faint oak to but surely transient. Super complex in the finish. More 1er weight, but gc complexity without doubt.

2014 Charmes-Chambertin, Mazoyères
From a patch of (including) 1902 vintage vines – the oldest of the domaine.
High toned fruit and flowers. More intense, a little more weight, certainly more fierce. A really fine finishing width pf flavour. Excellent…

2014 Bonnes-Mares
From Chambolle-side, right on the border with Morey… Like the majority of GCs, 80% whole cluster.
Wide, complex, intense – very impressive indeed. Good weight, super, energy and complexity – exceptionally so. Brilliant wine – gorgeous!

Les Blancs…
These first two to be bottled in December, the rest of the whites in March.

2014 Bourgogne Chardonnay Terres de Famille
Again a mix of parcels, similar to the red, mainly from the Hautes Côtes
A little reduction and seemingly oak toast. Good energy but with a little textural interest too. Good growing intensity. Best in the finish – plenty of interest and energy here. No lack of intensity either.

2014 Savigny-Lès-Beaune
From 2 parcels; Gollardes and Vermots
Again some modest reduction, width, but not modest. Quite good intensity and a very fine clarity of flavour – lovely!

2014 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Champs Gains
First vintage – 0.33 hectares that came from Girardin.
Also a little reduction, but fine top notes too. A wide and silky character with fine energy and a complexity of flavour. This is very good.

2014 Vougeot Clos Prieuré
Some weight of aroma, but with a nice fresh width too. Lovely texture, subtly complex, rewarding contemplative flavour.

2014 Vougeot 1er Clos Blanc de Vougeot
Open, complex, very interesting with freshness too. A faint gas prickle, but beautifully silky, complex and lithe, lovely, lovely wine super complexity and length. Bravo! Great wine, even a little tannin in the finish.

2014 Le Charlemagne
2 vines, one le charlemagne, one en charlemagne. Now labelled since 2013 as ‘Charlemagne.’
Super fine, elegant but also discreet. Complex, no extraneous weight, salt/sweet complexity. This is excellent. Airy, super.

2013 Bâtard-Montrachet
Chassagne side, below Thenard’s Montrachet.
Larger, opulent but freshly perfumed. I love the muscle yet lithe, mobile, complex energy. Excellent, airy wine.
2014 Bienvenues Bâtard-Montrachet
Almost .5 hectare, former Henri Clerc estate.
Fresh, faintly reduced, complex but more discreet than the Bâtard. A more composed, considered character, but really no less complex, or interesting. Indeed the weight of finishing flavour is larger here, insinuating complexity, super! Distinguishes itself with the width of intense finishing flavour
2014 Chevalier-Montrachet
Also from Clerc, the smallest cuvée of the domaine – 2 barrels. Above the Cabotte, hardly any soil there. The only wine with 50% new oak as two barrels.
A tight sweetness at the core, a layer of discreetly complex, almost spicy aroma – lots of subtle complexity. Lithe, intense, very wide indeed. There is an ever-present core of intensity, even for quite some time after you finish.

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