Domaine de la Vougeraie Vougeot Premier Cru Le Clos Blanc de Vougeot 2009

Winemaker Pierre Vincent (formerly of Maison Jaffelin) declared that 2009 was a "quasi-perfect vintage and the only reason I say 'quasi-perfect' is because we had some early season hail in Bonnes Mares, Chambolle and Charmes-Chambertin. The growing season was like 2005 that gave us very ripe tannins and round and supple acidities. The flowering was perfect, which made for a large crop with uniform ripeness levels. And because the growing season didn't have much rot pressure, the fruit was super clean and our sorting losses were less than 5%. We began picking on the 8th of September and started with the whites before moving on to the reds. The fruit averaged 13% in terms of potential alcohol and there wasn't even one wine that I decided to chaptalize, which is extremely rare. The vinification was easy even though I did a relatively long cuvaison of 25 to 28 days at a maximum temperature of 30° C. As I did in 2008, I used varying percentages of whole clusters, which I think added elegance. The malos were irregular with some beginning early and finishing late and some started late but finished quickly. The post-malo pHs were in the 3.65 range, which is perfectly acceptable to us. Overall, we are extremely happy with the potential quality of our '09s and believe that our clients are going to love them." As I have observed previously, Vincent is making real progress and these '09s are easily the best wines I have yet seen from him, which is a real compliment as the '08s were excellent. Moreover, several of the villages level wines offer truly outstanding quality and should be on your radar screens for obtaining great value.