2014 Domaine de la Vougeraie, Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru

For reports and full tasting notes, go toTim Atkin MW's website.

Medium red. Complex, soil-inflected aromas of raspberry, red cherry, smoked meat and minerals. Sweet, rich, pliant wine with lovely early balance and mineral grip. A relatively round style of Clos Vougeot, especially for the year, this should offer early appeal if it doesn't go into a shell in the bottle. The yield here was a generous 40 hectoliters per hectare in 2014, according to Vincent, who noted that the estate's grand cru vineyards generally had the highest production. Vincent carried out a 10% saignée here to further concentrate the wine.

The 2014 Clos Vougeot Grand Cru includes 70% whole cluster fruit this year. It has a well defined nose that perhaps does not quite deliver the complexity that I was expecting. It needs a little more precision and mineralité. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin, here, showing the detail and the class that I would like to see expressed aromatically. Nicely weighted on the finish with a hint of orange zest, this will hopefully turn out to be a fine Clos Vougeot...just so long as the nose puts its house in order.

Scented and sweet. Rich and rewarding but with some transparency. Very much alive! (JR)