Winemaker Notes
Deep ruby. These old vines offer dark berry aromas, violets, tobacco and minty notes. 100+ year old vines generates concentrated and rich flavors of dark fruit, plum, cassis and blackberries. This is a muscular yet balanced and well-structured wine that rewards cellar aging.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Hints of cocoa and vanilla are all that escape this wine's shy nose for now. These notions coat the rounded black-cherry fruit on the nose and leave highlights of nutmeg. The body is sumptuous with fruit and dense with tannin that is not quite velvety but certainly conveys generousity and smoothness. This richness tapers into an elegant finish.
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Wine Spectator
An oaky style, this delivers plenty of toast and spice notes, along with wild herbs, offsetting the macerated cherry and berry flavors. There is a vegetal, licorice element too, and overall this feels dense and muscular, needing time to come together. Best from 2024 through 2042.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
Containing the largest Grand Cru in all of the Côte d’Or, Vougeot, the village, takes its name from the small stream flowing through it, called Vouge. Over three quarters of the village retains Grand Cru status, and a single vineyard at that: Clos de Vougeot (or simply, Clos Vougeot). Its mass—over 50 ha—retains the single name chiefly for historic reasons.
But today, Clos de Vougeot contains over 80 owners and shows significant soil and slope variations within its boundaries. The top, bordering Musigny and Grands Echezeaux, is calcareous and gravelly on oolitic limestone and exhibits wonderful drainage. The middle sections are limestone, gravel and clay with less of a slope. The lower part has little slant and is mostly made of clay. Historically the diverse parcels were blended but today the abundance of owners means that everyone has his own style. Exploring and understanding them is part of the allure of Clos de Vougeot.
In general a fine Clos de Vougeot when young will be dense and dark but juicy, with a pronounced austerity, and needs a good ten years to bring it to its full potential.