Beaune 1er Cru “Les Grèves” Reviews

There is a touch of wood spice that combines with notably floral and very pretty red berry scents. There is good punch to the markedly firm medium-bodied flavors that possess good power, fine depth and impressive persistence. This is a classic Grèves, which is to say rugged and robust without being rustic.

The 2010 Beaune Greves impresses for its textural depth, richness and overall complexity. There is plenty of volume in the fruit in the style of the vintage, but with plenty of underlying minerality. All in all, this is a terrific Greves well worth considering. Anticipated maturity: 2014-2022.

The 2010 Beaune Greves impresses for its textural depth, richness and overall complexity. There is plenty of volume in the fruit in the style of the vintage, but with plenty of underlying minerality. All in all, this is a terrific Greves well worth considering. Anticipated maturity: 2014-2022. This is stunning set of wines from Pierre Vincent and Domaine de la Vougeraie. It is impossible to miss the attention to detail at this impeccably run domaine. No expense is spared. It takes 80 people to work the vineyards during harvest and another 20 in the cellar to take it from there. Production in 2010 was of course down significantly as it was everywhere else. Yields came in at 24 hectoliters per hectare for the Pinot and 29 for the Chardonnay. Vincent used between 30-80% whole bunches, depending on the wine. Readers who want to learn more might want to check out my video interview with Pierre Vincent on www.erobertparker.com. I will report on the domaine’s 2009s in the April issue. For now let me just say the 2009 Musigny is one of the wines of the vintage.

A distinctly ripe yet attractive fresh nose of red and black cherry fruit and warm earth aromas introduce attractively textured, round, rich, supple and focused middle weight flavors. There is a fine sense of underlying tension to the firmly structured finish but there is plenty of buffering sap and excellent length. This offers fine development potential.

A discreet touch of wood sets off notably ripe, earthy and brooding aromas of red currants, plum and a hint of stone. The rich and relatively powerful flavors also evidence a lovely minerality on the driving and impressively persistent finish. This is excellent and well worth considering.

The 2009 Beaune Greves is one of the darker, more brooding wines at La Vougeraie. Smoke, licorice and goudron are some of the nuances that flow from this intense red. Hints of crushed rocks frame the finish. Anticipated maturity: 2014-2022. Biodynamic farming and non-interventionalist winemaking are at the heart of the approach at Domaine de la Vougeraie. The 2009s saw roughly a 25 days of maceration (including a week of cold soak) with one punch down a day. Once in barrel racking was kept to a bare minimum. A number of wines were bottled in late 2010 and early 2011. I tasted these wines with winemaker Pierre Vincent in March 2011.

Mild reduction knocks down the nose but there is good vitality and freshness to the round, rich, supple and focused middle weight flavors that poses good focus and firm structure but there is plenty of buffering sap and excellent length. This offers fine development potential and is worth considering. 2016+