Floral notes over a dark, fresh cherry base. Sweet and silky – plush without being fat. There’s plenty of structure though it’s mainly buried. Good energy too. Very good.
Vougeraie
2000 Vougeraie Clos de Vougeot
I wasn’t going to rush to open one of these, but given the relatively poor performance of the 2000 ‘Cras‘, I felt compelled to. Medium, medium-plus colour. Warm, ripe aromas with a hint of spice but without any loss of elegance and still a decent focus. Nicely mouth-filling, excellently textured and with understated, though sufficient, acidity. Decent depth of fruit and the faintest residue of tannin – only one complaint; there’s a hint of cola flavour that I don’t think appropriate for Clos de Vougeot. The finish is elegantly long. Neither a powerhouse nor a wine of mind-bending dimension – you might say not a great grand cru then, but this is a beautifully judged middle-weight that is in a very nice place at the moment. Most villages wines now cost more than I paid for this – I’d buy a dozen without a moment’s hesitation if I could pay the same price!
2005 Vougeraie Clos de Vougeot
2005 Vougeraie Charmes-Chambertin
2001 Vougeraie Corton Le Roi
2001 Vougeraie Charmes-Chambertin - Mazoyeres
Medium-plus cherry colour and a beautiful red cherry nose. The 65 year old vines have produced a big, tannic wine with perfect acidity. Superb fruit. I often find ‘Charmes’ less interesting than the other G-C Grand Crus – perhaps because it’s such a large vineyard relative to the others, but this is perhaps the best example I’ve ever tasted. Excellent – and I’m looking for some!
2001 Vougeraie Clos de Vougeot
From 3 separate parcels of vines blended together for the first time this vintage. Medium colour. High toned but very reserved nose; even cold from the cellar some spicyness, and eventually some fruit start to come through with swirling. Very concentrated palate with lovely tannins. An excellent example.
2001 Vougeraie Bonnes-Mares
2001 Vougeraie Musigny
Believe it or not, the entire harvest from this vineyard was de-stemmed grape by grape, entirely by hand. This process took 10 people 12 hours to complete resulting in 2 and a quarter barrels. Medium-plus cherry in colour. The nose is deep with an aroma that’s quite persistent. Very silky almost soft palate, despite the evident concentration. Very smooth, well covered acidity. The finish is exceptionally long – as you would expect with an exceptional wine!