2012 Domaine de la Vougeraie, Batard-Montrachet Grand Cru

What a pleasure it is to taste Domaine de la Vougeraie's 2012 Batard-Montrachet, which is new this year. A remarkable wine in every way, the 2012 covers every inch of the palate with its voluptuous, sexy fruit. Hints of smoke and stone fruits are beginning to develop, but today the 2012 is a wine of texture above all else. I only hope to be able to taste it again from bottle. Today, the Batard is virtually impossible to spit.

The 2012 Batard-Montrachet Grand Cru comes from a parcel just in front of Baron Thenard’s Montrachet and is raised in one new and one raised barrel. It is one the newest additions to the already vast Vougeraie portfolio: two parcels totaling 0.20 hectares, 15 rows on the upper reaches and 10 rows on the lower. It has an attractive candied orange peel bouquet that unfurls in the glass – one of the most expressive Batard that I have encountered at this early stage. The palate is well-balanced with a sorbet-like freshness on the entry, hints of apricot and white peach with a peachy long finish. This is a pretty grand cru. Domaine de la Vougeraie was founded in 1998 when the domaines of Claudine Deschamps, Pierre Ponnelle, Louis Voilland and L’Heritier-Guyot were merged. I remember it well because at the time I was exporting L’Heritier-Guyot’s wines to Japan (to be frank, they were quite ordinary back then.) The man behind the venture was Jean-Claude Boisset, whose own considerable holdings meant that Domaine de la Vougeraie became a significant player in the Cote d’Or, with 37 hectares of prime vineyard including seven grand crus to their name. I have to be honest and say that like many others, I liked the first few vintages of their wine, but found them a little predictable and seemed to struggle for charm and personality. Perhaps that was a reflection of former winemaker Pascal Marchand applying the practices he had learned at Comte Armand: a lot of new oak with 100% de-stemmed fruit – not really my bag. When he departed for pastures new, incoming winemaker Pierre Vincent seemed to apply a gentler touch. The new oak is still part of the wines’ character, but there is certainly a more considered approach, plus he is more open to using whole cluster fruit. Managing such an array of wines with a relatively small team cannot be easy in challenging vintages such as 2012, or for that matter 2013. Pierre told me that his average yields were 22 hectoliters per hectare, though for the grand crus, they were down to 17 hectoliters per hectare. Importer: Boisset Family Estates, St. Helena, CA; tel. (800) 878-1123