Reviews

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.

Already showing some game and decaying fruit aromas and flavors, this red also boasts spice and mineral notes. Succulent and firmly structured, with a lingering aftertaste of spice and stone.

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.

A discreet hint of wood only emerges after 30 minutes or so of air along with ripe and somewhat somber wild dark berry fruit aromas that display hints of spice and warm earth. There is good volume but also solid detail to the medium-bodied flavors that possess a suave and supple mouth feel before culminating in a delicious, focused and attractively intense finish. This is not an especially elegant Chambolle villages but there is good complexity and persistence.

Here the nose is quite similar to that of the Beaune with just a bit more elegance as the fruit is slightly higher-toned. The palate impression is, not surprisingly, a bit firmer than that of the Beaune but this too is relatively accessible with slightly better depth and length on the more well-defined finish. This should benefit from a few years in the cellar if desired but it could also be drunk with pleasure now after 30 minutes in a decanter.

Here too there is a discreet hint of wood framing the more elegant and more complex ripe and dark berry fruit suffused nose. There is a lovely mouth feel to the lightly mineral-inflected middle weight flavors that don't quite have the same phenolic ripeness of the villages though the supporting tannins are certainly finer. There is also a noticeable touch of warmth on otherwise clean and agreeably dry if mildly astringent finish. In sum, this is more refined and a bit more complex but the Chardannes is better balanced and pound for pound a better wine.

A ripe and distinctly earthy nose of pretty red pinot fruit leads to middle weight flavors that are very Beaune in style, which is to say round, supple and quite generous, all wrapped in a slightly fruity finish of acceptable depth and length. There is good mid-palate fat which confers a seductive texture onto the palate impression but this is without real distinction. Note that this could already be drunk with pleasure.

There is a hint of reduction present initially though within 5 minutes it had dissipated to reveal earthy and rustic dark berry fruit and pungent earth aromas. The light weight flavors possess good verve and reasonably good detail on the dusty and mildly dry finish that offers just enough depth and length to be interesting.

Year's Best Burgundy (Oct 2013). Vougeraie owns close to 2.5 acres of vines in Clos de Vougeot, in the northwest sector of the vineyard, including several blocks planted in the late 1940s and early '50s. Farmed under biodynamics since 2001, the vines produce a true grand cru wine, the 2010 seductive and monastically severe at once. Its scen is awsome: the perfume of the arth after a rain, the essence of cherries and pressed flowers. The flavor is dense, a youthfully blank slate that fills with the interplay of sun and earth as the complexity develops for minutes after each taste. Check on this with ten years of bottle age; it's destined for greatness.

Perhaps the best Bouchard Aine wine we've ever tasted, this puts all its cards on the table with complete confidence the moment it's opened: a grand trumpet blare of foresty scents, strawberries, rhubarb and Bretty funk. New oak plays a major role, but there is so much detail to the wine's flavor that it's just one more layer. A rich caress of dark fruit and earthy tannins make this delicious to drink now and over the next several years. It is, perhaps, too open for the long term.