Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru Reviews

Toasty and leesy, with generous minerality underlying apple, lime and citronella aromas and flavors. Sleek and well-defined, with a virbrant aftertaste of citrus, orchard fruit, stone and spices. - Bruce Sanderson

The Boisset family domaine, based in Vougeot, included some white parcels with long histories tied to the Abbaye de Cîteaux, as well as some prime plots of pinot noir. Their main parcel, 2.59 acres, is close to the top of the vineyard, with vines dating from the 1940s and ’50s to the early ’90s. A second parcel, at the bottom of the Clos, is just under an acre of vines planted in the mid-’80s. Their biodynamically farmed fruit comes together in a fragrant 2019, subtle rather than super-concentrated, bright, and rose-scented. Instead of weight, it offers length, continuing for minutes as it will continue for years in the cellar.

The 2015 Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru offers up a sapid bouquet of grilled game bird, espresso roast, wild plums and dark berries. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, ample and velvety, with real mid-palate substance, supple, melting tannins and impressive reserves of concentration and depth despite its elegant, understated profile. The finish is long, precise and succulent. From bottle, the Clos de Vougeot is one of the most promising wines from Domaine de la Vougeraie.

Most of this wine comes from a parcel near the top of the vineyard, at the corner just below the alley that leads to the entrance of the Château du Clos de Vougeot; a smaller portion comes from the base of the vineyard, both parcels farmed under biodynamics since 2001. This is more powerful than many wines from this large grand cru, potently reduced so that it’s more feral animal and tar than fruit for now. Underneath that dark funk there’s a youthful floral note that lasts, waiting to emerge more fully as the wine resolves with age.

The 2016 Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru has a very elegant and poised bouquet, fine transparency here with superb delineation, not powerful but very precise and almost understated in style. The palate is medium-bodied with a pleasant chewiness to the tannin, good body, more assertive in the mouth than on the nose with a chalky texture toward the finish. Good length, lean and poised but fanning out with confidence—what a sublime expression of this famous vineyard.

Red Sweet vanilla, butterscotch and milk chocolate notes give way to cherry and spice flavors in this tightly wound red. The oak is dominant now, but there is a lot going on. The finish is long, ending with ripe fruit. 

Deep medium red. Subdued but pretty aromas of dark cherry, wild herbs and licorice. Broad and silky on entry, then much more dense and backward in the middle palate; the largest-scaled of the Domaine de la Vougeraie 2015s to this point but very slow to evolve. The slightly medicinal finish displays substantial dusty tannins and a strong licorice quality. Still quite reserved but very pure, spicy and long. In fact, this wine seemed to gain in power after I spit it. Vincent ranks this wine with 2014 and 2010 as his favorite vintages here for Clos Vougeot, but it will require considerable patience. -- Stephen Tanzer

A restrained and discreetly floral-inflected nose features ripe plum and black berry liqueur aromas along with plenty of earth character. The broad-scaled, rich and intense broad-shouldered flavors evidence a sleek muscularity on the long, punchy and moderately austere finish. This is relatively fine for a youth Clos de Vougeot and that should enable it to be approachable young even though it should easily improve for 15 to 20 years.
 

Good medium red. Musky, slightly rustic nose shows more red than black fruits, with complicating notes of underbrush, herbs and pepper. Very rich, tactile, dry and backward, showing more minerality and medicinal reserve than primary berry or cherry fruit in the early going. Tough going today in spite of its depth of texture and richness. Not at all a sweet style. Vincent told me he prefers the easier sweetness of the 2014, noting that, in general, he regards the 2010 vintage as the best compromise between sweetness and energy since he took over winemaking here in 2006. — Stephen Tanzer

The 2014 Clos Vougeot Grand Cru includes 70% whole cluster fruit this year. It has a well defined nose that perhaps does not quite deliver the complexity that I was expecting. It needs a little more precision and mineralité. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin, here, showing the detail and the class that I would like to see expressed aromatically. Nicely weighted on the finish with a hint of orange zest, this will hopefully turn out to be a fine Clos Vougeot...just so long as the nose puts its house in order.

The 2012 Clos de Vougeot is deep, dense, powerful and earthy. Here, it is the wine's pure depth and resonance that stand out. I imagine the 2012 will start to drink beautifully in a handful of years, once the tannins start to soften a bit.

Black and sleek with the dark-roast coffee scent of expensive oak, this wine's graceful fruit and incipient complexity is overtaken up front by that smokiness. But it's the strawberry essence that lasts in the finish, warm and powerful, ready to go the distance in the cellar.

The black cherry core is framed by vanilla and smoky oak notes in this powerful, beefy red. The tannins dominate the ripe fruit at this stage, contributing to a raw finish. The elements are all there, but this needs time to come together in the cellar.

Medium red. Expressive aromas of strawberry, earth and game, lifted by a subtle floral element. Broad and rich on the palate, but with good focus to the red fruit and smoky earth flavors. Finishes with substantial dusty but fine-grained tannins and excellent length. Boasts plenty of early sweetness but I'd lay it down for six or seven years.

The black cherry core is framed by vanilla and smoky oak notes in this powerful, beefy red. The tannins dominate the ripe fruit at this stage, contributing to a raw finish. The elements are all there, but this needs time to come together in the cellar. Best from 2017 through 2035.

Moderate wood influence frames the ripe and fresh nose that combines crushed red berries, earth, dried rose petal and subtle kirsch and spice hints. There is good power, size and weight to the medium weight plus flavors where once again the underlying tannins are relatively fine grained, all wrapped in a mouth coating, balanced and cool finish that delivers excellent persistence where the wood resurfaces. Note that this will also require 12 to 15 years of cellar time to arrive at its full potential.

Moderate reduction renders the nose difficult to assess other than to observe a bit of wood spice and aromas that appear to be notably ripe. There is by contrast plenty of verve and power to the brooding, dense and well-muscled flavors that possess ripe and very firm supporting tannins and outstanding length. Vincent noted that he believes that this is the best Clos de Vougeot that he has ever made and I would have to agree that at this early juncture, it is the most promising example that I have tasted at this address.

The 2009 Clos de Vougeot is impeccable from start to finish. Layers of succulent red fruit emerge from this structured yet balanced, harmonious wine. A final burst of red fruit informs the energetic, polished finish. The Clos de Vougeot is made from two parcels, the first at the top of the hill measures 1.2 hectares, the second to the bottom 0.3 hectares, aged separately and blended one month prior to bottling. The wine was fermented with 30% whole clusters and aged in 70% new oak with no rackings during elevage. Anticipated maturity: 2019-2029. 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.

Tasted out of the barrel at the Domaine. A blend from their two parcels at the bottom and top of the Grand Cru, this has a lifted bouquet of cassis, blueberry and dark cherries, prominent new oak but here in synch with the fruit and it should meld nicely over time. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins on the entry, a pleasing sense of symmetry here with fine definition and freshness on the crisp, redcurrant and Morello finish. This is a very fine Clos Vougeot. Tasted November 2010

(from an exceptionally well-positioned 1 ha parcel situated directly beneath Les Petits Musigny that is combined with another less well located .35 ha parcel close to the main road) 40% whole clusters. This is quite densely fruited with floral and freshly turned earth aromas adding interest to the wild and medium-toned red berry fruit. The delicious, intense and serious broad-shouldered flavors possess excellent mid-palate and concentration with ample amounts of dry extract that partially buffers the chewy and ripe tannins on the long and less austere than usual finish, 2023+