Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Features a roasted cherry note to the black cherry and red berry flavors, with a beam of mineral and spice. Turns elegant on the finish, revealing a lingering aftertaste of underbrush, spice and mineral. Best from 2016 through 2035.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2009 Clos de Vougeot is impeccable from start to finish. Layers of succulent red fruit emerge from this structured yet balanced, harmonious wine. A final burst of red fruit informs the energetic, polished finish. The Clos de Vougeot is made from two parcels, the first at the top of the hill measures 1.2 hectares, the second to the bottom 0.3 hectares, aged separately and blended one month prior to bottling. The wine was fermented with 30% whole clusters and aged in 70% new oak with no rackings during elevage. Anticipated maturity: 2019-2029. Biodynamic farming and non-interventionalist winemaking are at the heart of the approach at Domaine de la Vougeraie. The 2009s saw roughly a 25 days of maceration (including a week of cold soak) with one punch down a day. Once in barrel racking was kept to a bare minimum. A number of wines were bottled in late 2010 and early 2011. I tasted these wines with winemaker Pierre Vincent in March 2011.
Celebrated as some of the best wine in the universe, red wine from Burgundy, otherwise known as red Burgundy, is Pinot noir. In fact Burgundy is the birthplace of Pinot noir and the source of the planet’s most sensual, delicate, valuable and sought-after Pinot noir wines.
Understanding and enjoying red Burgundy can stay simple, with a basic knowledge of its subregions, become more intricate by dialing down to the villages and vineyards or become a life-long passion, exploring climats (plots of vines), vintages and the post French Revolution land ownership laws. In any case, a fine red Burgundy will display refined nuances of black currant, red fruit, earth, spice, alluring floral aromatics and have great elegance, complexity and longevity.
Most famous, praised and collected of Burgunday are those from the Côte d'Or. Hundreds of millions of years ago, the area now called Côte d'Or was under a warm ocean whose sea floor has, over time, shifted and decomposed into various layers of limestone, sandstone and clay interspersed with ancient fossilized sea creatures. This is what is referred to as the famous escarpment upon which all of the highly sought-after Grands Crus and Premiers Crus vineyards can be found. In other words, from north to south, the best vineyards of Gevrey-Chambertin, Morey-St-Denis, Chambolle-Musigny, Vougeot, Vosne-Romanée, Flagey-Echezeaux, Nuits-St-Georges, Aloxe-Corton, Pommard and Volnay follow the path of this ancient sea bed.