Domaine de la Vougeraie Reviews

Features beautiful cherry, raspberry and floral aromas and flavors matched to a silky texture. Harmonious and vibrant, with a long, juicy finish. Best from 2016 through 2032. 70 cases imported. –BS

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

This lean, sinewy red is marked by a tannic edge and a cedar note. There’s intensity to the cherry and berry fruit, finishing sweet, with a spicy accent.

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.

Dense pear and red peach skin flavors give this wine a cool tone. Impacted with fruit, the generous fullness of the wine is balanced by equally rich lemony acidity. The lasting impression is dark and smoky, seeming to hold complexities that will emerge with bottle age.

Airy and fresh, with creamy notes of vanilla and the crust of crème brulée, this has tart acidity to spark up the finish, bringing out bright orange citrus flavors that last. Oak brings a puff pastry richness to the wine, but it’s balanced by all the citrusy fruit. Decant it for a cream-based seafood stew.

From a triangle of vines adjacent to the Château du Clos de Vougeot, this block has been planted to white grapes at least as far back as 1110. Jasper Morris in his article, “Nuits Blanche” (W&S, October 2012), writes that the soil here is different from the rest of Clos de Vougeot, “an unusual salmon pink conglomerate of the Oligocene period.” Today, the monopole is planted mostly to chardonnay (95 percent) with a small amount of pinots gris and blanc. It produces a golden wine, the 2010 ripe with beeswax scents and fruit notes that range from lemon to pineapple. A tight structure holds all the ripeness, keeping the wine cool, focused for long aging.

More generous and straightforwardly brisk than Le Clos Blanc, this wine has fresh melon flavors and a broad, smoky finish. Its deep, golden savor will develop into complexity over the next several years.

An intensely floral nose of violets, lavender and lilac serves to add considerable elegance to the very fresh red pinot fruit that is substantially cut with wet stone and earth nuances. The large-bodied and imposingly structured flavors possess outstanding mid-palate density with an abundance of mouth coating and tannin-buffering dry extract, all wrapped in a textured, driving and built to age finish. This brooding and tightly wound effort will require close to 20 years to reach its apogee.

The 2010 Gevrey-Chambertin Les Evocelles bursts onto the palate with expressive dark fruit. This is an especially round, generous style of Gevrey. Slightly sauvage notes come through on the finish, but there is more than enough fruit to balance some of the wine’s wilder leanings. Vincent used 50% whole clusters here. Anticipated maturity: 2015-2025.

The 2010 Gevrey-Chambertin Bel Air shows the wilder side of Gevrey. The aromas and flavors aren’t quite as well-defined as they are in the other Gevreys in the lineup. Maybe time will help soften some of the contours that mark the wine’s personality at present. 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.

The 2010 Gevrey-Chambertin La Justice comes across as delicate and fleeting in this vintage. Dried red cherries, crushed flowers and spices are some of the notes that waft from the glass. Overall, this comes across as a bit fragile and most likely best suited for drinking over the next few years. Anticipated maturity: 2015-2030. 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.

The 2010 Savigny-Les-Beaune Les Marconnets presents a dark profile of black cherries, plums, smoke and licorice, all in a deep, sensual style that is more than a little bit unusual for the appellation. This is an especially rich, big Savigny informed by the high percentage of shot berries that have given the wine its intensity and deep color, but it all works, and beautifully. It will be interesting to see how this develops over the next few years. Anticipated maturity: 2014-2020. 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.

The 2010 Vougeot Les Cras is a gorgeous, mid-weight wine laced with sweet red cherries, mint and crushed rocks. This is a decidedly focused, energetic wine with notable tension and wiriness. Saline notes mark the clean, bracing finish. Vincent notes that there was a high incidence of shot berries in this parcel. The Cras was made with 50% whole bunches. Anticipated maturity: 2015-2030. This is a 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 the first wine to display any significant reduction but here it's enough to block an evaluation of the nose. The rich, intense and energetic middle weight flavors possess fine precision and plenty of mineral nuances, all wrapped in a firm, mouth coating, dusty and well-balanced finish. Petits Noizons is arguably the best villages level vineyard in Pommard and the quality of this excellent effort merits consideration.

A spicy and distinctly earthy nose of ripe and very floral wild red berries also displays the pungent sauvage notes of a classic Clos du Roi. There is excellent mid-palate concentration to the palate staining broad-shouldered flavors that possess plenty of muscle and punch on the complex and terrifically long finish. This is a very serious effort that will require all of 15 years to come around and perhaps even a few more before all of the structure is fully resolved.

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.