Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru “Les Corvées Pagets” Reviews

Expressive aromas of red berries and oak spice grace this polished red, whose tannins are kept at bay by the fleshy texture. Fresh and firm, with spice notes echoing on the finish. Best from 2016 through 2029. 60 cases imported. –BS

New oak weaves into the fruit of this wine to create a single line of flavor, carrying through to a salty-sweet finish. Seemingly New World in style, this may gain more expression as it ages.

Moderately saturated medium red. Slightly liqueur-like aromas of redcurrant, plum, mocha and spicy oak. Not especially complex but thick and vibrant, offering a light touch to its blackberry and spice flavors. Finishes with sweet tannins and very good persistence.

The 2010 Nuits St. Georges Les Corvees Paget is a powerful, super-ripe wine that shows quite a bit of exuberance. This was one of the last parcels to be harvested. The level of ripeness and concentration are a little unusual for the year. Once the juiciness fades off a bit, there isn’t as much complexity as is found in the best 2010s here. Anticipated maturity: 2015-2025. 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.

This is also aromatically dominated by reductive notes but it seems reasonably clear that the underlying fruit is ripe. The textured and well-concentrated flavors possess ripe structuring tannins and fine length. There is good balance and while this is still quite tightly wound there is excellent underlying depth of material that should augur well for up to a decade of improvement.