Tasting Notes

Not the most exciting Clos de Vougeot on the market. It’s decently made, with lots of sweet fruit and oak, but the wine seems rather four-square, with too much extraction and a rather firm, dry finish. 

Another winery that is in the running for my heavy bottle Burgundy award. Mid garnet/red in colour. The palate shows sweet oak, reasonable concentration, some raspeberry coulis notes and good acidity, with appealing balance. It’s more of a village level wine than a Grand Cru, but it’s still a decent Pinot. 

Better known for its holdings in Vosne-Romanée, this domaine produces densely powerful wines with a lot of oak. That’s the case here too: big, dense, low yield-derived Pinot with the barrel staves a little too dominant on the palate and a dry, almost Italianate finish. Not my style of Pinot. 

Mid ruby with a hint of purple. A muscular wine: big and bold and aromatic. But the oak seems excessive to me somehow, with lots of coffee bean and smoky oak that’s smothering the fruit flavours. The domaine could spend less on barrels and improve its wines in my view. 

Yves Confuron’s wines are very distinctive, partly because of his use of stems but also because of his way of expressing his vineyards. Mid garnet/pink, with a stemmy, but highly aromatic nose. Quite traditional in style, with a firm tanninc backbone giving structure to the sweetness of the fruit. Fresh acidity, finely poised. 

Mid ruby/pink. Very youthful, with just a hint of (acceptable) reduction. Scented, sexy, plush fruit on the palate with fine-grained tannins and minerally, lip-smacking acidity. Perfumed, complex and mouthwatering, with a long, tapering finish. An impressive wine that will improve further in bottle. 

Deep ruby with purple notes. Evidence of over-ripeness on the nose and palate, with some volatility, oxidation and extraction. Pruney and tannic, this is the sort of wine that gives Clos de Vougeot a bad name as a Grand Cru. 

Very, very pale, almost transparent Pinot. Delicate and very subtle with red fruits, a hint of forest floor and wild mushrooms. Long and refined with grainy, sculpted tannins, refreshing acidity and a long finish. The wine needs a little more concentration perhaps. 

Mid garnet/pink. A little closed on the nose and showing some reduction, possibly pre-bottling. Red fruits, cherry and a hint of int, with fresh acidity and some minerality. Not massively complex, but more than acceptable. 

Mid ruby/garnet. Aromatic, modern style with quite a bit of oak. Firm and slightly chunky on the palate, but there’s more than enough fruit underneath for balance. A wine that is still in the starting blocks. Give it some time and it will hit its stride. 

Another heavy bottle award contender from Burgundy. The nose is a little over-ripe and alcoholic (a pitfall in 2009), with lots of oak and a tannic finish, possibly from slight raisining. I’m not convinced this will age.