Domaine de la Vougeraie Reviews

More restricted and tense than the 2013, and more aristocratic as well, this starts out with floral notes of white roses, orange pith and lime pith, presented with red-wine intensity. Earthy and sleek, this opens with air to briny minerality, while remaining tightly clenched. A touch of sweetness fleshes out the structural grip, hinting at the roseate flavors that should develop with bottle age. This has the energy to last.

These vines face east, on the steep hill at the northern edge of Nuits, bordering Vosne-Romanee. They produced a wine of gentle beauty in 2012, with a floral, red-fruited aroma that could pass for a grand cru. Darker notes of black peppercorn infuse the tannins, so the finish is like breathing black spice. This gains intensity as it opens with air, brooding, seductive, yet still refined. 

This enticing white, offering apple, lime, floral and mineral aromas and flavors, with a touch of oak spice, is balanced, with moderate length. Drink now through 2018. –BS

There's a salty, savory edge to this elegant white. Needs air to reveal the vanilla, peach, lemon and butterscotch aromas and flavors. Racy on the finish. Best from 2016 through 2022. –BS

This is expressive, boasting black cherry, raspberry, spice and kirsch notes. Firm ending with a lingering hint of sweet fruit and spice. Knits all the elements together nicely.  – B.S.

Dark notes of black cherry, black current, licorice and chocolate mark this dense, solid red. The tannins are ripe yet assertive, with lively acidity driving the long finish. –BS

Fragrant, boasting rose, wild strawberry, sandalwood and olive aromas and flavors, matched to a delicate frame. Persistent, showing staying power on the lingering finish.

Intense aromas of peach, apple and spice set the pace, while a lemon note persists underneath. Focused from beginning to end with a balanced, harmonious feel. Fine Length. –BS 
 

Very aromatic, offering sandalwood, incense, floral and berry notes, backed by sweet, ripe cherry and raspberry flavors and a silky texture. Structured and racy, this builds to a long, complex and expansive finish. –BS

Well-marked by new oak, this leads off with vanilla and toast aromas, followed by cherry and black currant flavors lurking under-neath, marshaled by vivid acidity and embedded, chalky tannins. Hangs together through the lingering aftertaste of fruit and spice.  – B.S.

An openly exotic yet restrained nose features aromas of dried mango, peach, pear, sandalwood and orange pekoe tea. As in the 2013 version, there is outstanding size, weight and intensity to the enveloping broad-shouldered flavors that brim with palate soaking dry extract before culminating in a complex, generous and overtly powerful finish. This is a big impeccably well-balanced Bâtard that should also repay up to a decade's worth of cellar time. 

GOLD

Full medium-deep red. Sexy, soil-inflected aromas of briary raspberry, brown spices, woodsmoke, white pepper and truffley underbrush. Sappy and sharply delineated, showing rather powerful wild red berry fruit along with complicating notes of minerals, roasted herbs and brown spices. A superb, nuanced expression of this great grand cru, offering a complex blend of light and darker soils (70% of the estate's vines are in Chambolle-Musigny). Powerful acidity gives this wine a whiplash of a finish.

Here there is enough reduction present to recommend decanting your bottle if you plan to try one young in the interest
of “science”. There is excellent size, weight and power to the vibrant flavors that possess excellent mid-palate
concentration and while the supporting tannins are relatively fine there is some of the hallmark rusticity of
Mazoyères present on the otherwise strikingly long finish. This should thoroughly reward mid to longer-term cellaring.

There are background touches of wood spice adding breadth to the floral,and exceptionally ripe mix of various red berries,
earth and subtle sauvage hints that include a note of prune. The overtly powerful and big-bodied flavors possess fine
mid-palate density as there is an abundance of dry extract that helps to buffer the very firm tannic spine on the
succulent and mouth coating finish. This is very Corton in the sense that it’s a big and powerful wine but at present it seems
to lack a bit of vibrancy and the note of prune on the nose is never an encouraging sign. My score offers the benefit of the
doubt that the freshness will pick up with a few years of bottle age in the same fashion as have a number of 2003s and 2009s.

The 2012 Beaune Les Montée Rouge is another super-impressive entry-level offering from Vougeraie. Here the fruit is wonderfully centered and poised, which gives the wine its sense of direction and focus. Licorice, dried rose petal, cinnamon and sweet rasp

Dark red cherry, plum, violet, new leather and spice all blossom in the 2012 Gevrey-Chambertin Les Evocelles. A wine of superior density, the Evocelles stands out for its pliant, expressive personality and pure depth. The 2012 is broad, creamy and expansi

Sweet red cherries, flowers, spices and hard candy wrap around the palate in the 2012 Pommard Les Petits Noisons. A juicy, immediate wine, the 2012 is likely to offer its finest drinking pretty much upon release. There is a sense of immediate pleasure tha

The 2012 Beaune Les Grèves is incredibly powerful and energetic in this vintage. Dark red and black cherries, smoke and tobacco emerge from the glass over time, but today it is the wine's tannin and overall structure that dominate. The Grèves is likely to

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.

A regal, majestic Burgundy, the 2012 Musigny is totally alive in the glass. Sweet, perfumed aromatics meld into red berries, mint and anise and wild flowers in an impeccable, beautifully layered wine. The 2012 will naturally take a number of years to peak

Translucent and powerful yet also weightless, the 2012 Savigny-lès-Beaune Les Marconnets captures the essence of what makes Pinot Noir and Burgundy so compelling. Smoke, tar and menthol appear first, followed by intense dark red and blackish fruit. Ferrou