Various Vougeot

Colin was our Monday Table host last night and Clos de Vougeot was the vineyard we were to explore. Big G asked if he could do a ‘white wedgie’ and slipped in a bracket of 6 Vougeot Blancs. We finished with two splendid German sweeties.

Champagne Bracket

2004 Bollinger Champagne La Grande Année: A little advanced and oxy. Some nutty, aldehyde notes and plenty of honey. Lacks precision and acidity is as flat as a biscuit.

N.V. Laurent-Perrier Champagne Grand Siècle Grande Cuvée: A blend of 2002, 2004 and 2005. This is seriously classy. There are fresh apple and spiced pear aromas. It is creamy and full, with a relatively high dosage but cut beautifully by balancing, minerally acidity. It is fine and super-long.

White Vougeot Bracket

2006 Domaine de la Vougeraie Vougeot 1er Cru Clos Blanc de Vougeot: Rich and full and a little bit tropical. There’s some coconut and Pine Lime Splice notes.

2011 Domaine de la Vougeraie Vougeot 1er Cru Clos Blanc de Vougeot: There’s some spearmint and almond cream. It is layered, full and long, with something cool and floral lurking just below the flesh.

2012 Domaine de la Vougeraie Vougeot 1er Cru Clos Blanc de Vougeot: In really good form. There’s a whiff of smoky mineral reduction. It has pure white peach and green melon fruits. It is rich, direct, powerful and long.

2014 Domaine de la Vougeraie Vougeot 1er Cru Clos Blanc de Vougeot: Cool and sappy with green melon fruit and some honeysuckle. Good depth, long and spicy and excellent balancing acidity.

2015 Domaine de la Vougeraie Vougeot 1er Cru Clos Blanc de Vougeot: Plenty of struck match. It is gently tropical and has loads of spice. There’s flesh and a core of sweet fruit. It tightens up on the back-end.

2016 Domaine de la Vougeraie Vougeot 1er Cru Clos Blanc de Vougeot: A whiff of reduction then its all green melon and citrus. Excellent depth, unctuous and layered. Really builds through the palate finishing with good energy.

Red Vougeot

2006 Domaine d’Eugénie Clos Vougeot, Grand Cru: Sweet, smoky and succulent with a pleasurable marshmallow note. Plump, juicy, jube-like fruit in the mouth. Good flesh and a gentle flex of sinewy muscle.

2005 Domaine R. DuBois & Fils Clos Vougeot, Grand Cru: A strangely advanced nose of teak and leather with plenty of volatile lift. The palate has some black fruit sweetness and a suggestion of licorice. It is quite chunky with drying tannins.

2001 Domaine Daniel Rion et Fils Clos Vougeot, Grand Cru: An earthy, savoury nose. There are red and black fruits overlaying a chalky base. It is mid-weight Clos de Vougeot that is nicely balanced.

2005 Alain Hudelot-Noellat Clos Vougeot, Grand Cru: Sweet black and blue fruits. Luscious, primary and deep. Very long. Needs a ton of time.

2005 Remoissenet Père et Fils Clos Vougeot, Grand Cru: Black fruits and licorice on the nose and in the mouth. There’s a sweet core of fruit and plenty of earthy nuance. It has good underlying minerality and the finish is a tad astringent.

1999 Domaine Méo-Camuzet Clos Vougeot, Grand Cru: Dense black cherry fruit at its heart. Complex florals along with cherry stone coolness. Fabulous volume and velvety texture. Just a little chew to the extremely long finale.

1997 Domaine Leroy Clos Vougeot, Grand Cru: Very whole bunchy nose. Notes of smoke, leather, brown spice and cherry. It is sweet and vinous in the mouth with a lacy feel. It has some volatility giving lift and a faint suggestion of nutty aldehyde.

2013 Alain Hudelot-Noellat Clos Vougeot, Grand Cru: Perhaps a bit redder fruited than some of the other CdV wines. Sweet and luscious with floral spice infused red berries. It has good volume and mineral tang driving home the finish.

1961 J. Thorin Clos Vougeot, Grand Cru: A little honeyed to begin with but deepened in the glass. There’s some freshly grated ginger, black earth and plum. It has a nuttiness to the finish and tannins have all but melded away.

1929 M. Doudet-Naudin Clos Vougeot, Grand Cru: Deep, dark and sooty. Has some smoked meats, licorice and a touch of sweaty saddle. It is black fruited, with a good core of sweet fruit and a tarry/leather finish that is very persistent. Remarkable old wine, still full of life.

German Sweeties

2005 Egon Müller Scharzhofberger Riesling Auslese Goldkapsel: Intense honey, citrus blossom and lime brulee aromas and flavours. Deep and concentrated with explosive orchard fruit flavours and real luscious sweetness. It is back-lit with luminous acidity and is a wow wine.

1998 Joh. Jos. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Eiswein: an incredible wine of intense focus, complexity and clarity. It is gently smoky and amply fruited. There are notes of rockmelon, paw paw, passionfruit and guava. Sweetness and perfectly countered by a line of sherbet-like acidity. It finishes with slatey/mineral cut and is extraordinarily long. One of the greatest Rieslings I have had.

Thanks for the notes, Jeremy.
I was particularly interested to see the positive note on the '29 as I’m sitting on a single bottle of it as well as the same house’s '29 Chambertin.

Thanks for the notes Jeremy. I’ve never had a white Vougeot before.

I like the late Denis Mortet’s CVs. I still have a few bottles left.

But the sisters Gibourg are the top-shelf producers. But you already knew that, I bet!

Hey Jeremy, I don’t post this often enough, but I always read and appreciate your notes-thanks.

Hi Andy,

That’s cool–should be even better than the CV. Be sure to post when you pop it!

Nice report! I’ve always felt that CdV was never one of the top grand crus–more likely to be slightly disappointed than impressed. But I was really surprised that in Neal Martin’s piece on the vinous board on most memorable bottles of numerous Burg winemakers, that CdV showed up surprisingly frequently.

there Vougeot again with a great post!

My impressions are sadly much more disappointing that your own.

We had a tasting of 16 different Clos Vougeot last year and the overall level was mediocre and disappointing.

Alex R.

Cheers Andy, I hope your '29 shows as well as ours.

Would have been nice to have one of the sister’s wines in the line-up Matthew.

Thank you Craig and Alan.

John and Alex, as far as Grand Crus go I would put Clos de Vougeot close to the bottom of the pile. I personally prefer Echezeaux and Corton if we are to look at comparing with another large Grand Crus. There were some excellent wines and in our line-up, but there is also a firmness and slight chunky quality to many of the wines.