Wine Ratings

wines

(bottled in March of 2012; this and the Bonnes-Mares were aged in 35% new oak): Deep, bright red-ruby. Brilliantly pure aromas of black raspberry, cherry and crushed limestone. Sharply chiseled, sappy and weightless in the mouth, with uncanny limestone cut to the flavors of raspberry, flowers and wild herbs. Spreads out insidiously to saturate and perfume the palate. Judging from this wine’s tactile, bracing finish, endless perfume and firm tannic spine, it should gain in nuance for two or three decades in a cool cellar.Vinous Media | 97+ VMA highly spiced and intensely floral nose evidences hints of violet, lilac, wild rose and lavender along with notes of both red and black pinot fruit and a kirsch nuances. The pure and intense yet silky broad-shouldered flavors possess a powerful yet almost delicate mouth feel thanks to the dense but fine tannins shaping the balanced, focused and delineated mineral-driven finish. This remains unapologetically built to age and indeed it will require plenty of it. In a word, impressive.Burghound | 97 BH(Musigny “Vieilles Vignes”- Domaine de Comte de Vogüé) The 2010 Comte de Vogüé Musigny is a beautiful wine in the making, as it soars from the glass in an aristocratic mélange of red and black cherries, blood orange, raw cocoa, stunningly complex minerality, a bit of raspberry, mustard seed, coffee, dried violets and vanillin oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and youthfully tight, with a sappy core of fruit, outstanding transparency, tangy acids, ripe, well-integrated tannins and outstanding length and grip on the very minerally finish. A beautiful and utterly classic bottle of Comte de Vogüé Musigny in the making. (Drink between 2022-2075).John Gilman | 95-97+ JGThe 2010 Musigny Vieilles Vignes is incredibly long and silky on the palate. Saline notes add urgency and vibrancy to the expressive red fruit in this beautifully woven, textured Musigny. Currently the Musigny appears to be revealing just a fraction of its potential. The sweet floral notes and super-refined red fruit that emerge over time are stunningly beautiful, though, and it is just a matter of time before the wine is fully formed. Today the 2010 is all about textural finesse, and there is no shortage of that in the glass. This is another stunningly beautiful wine from de Vogue. Anticipated maturity: 2025-2045.Long-time oenologist Francois Millet was away during my visit to Burgundy, so I can’t relay his always visually evocative thoughts on recent vintages. At the end of the day, though, these wines need no words; they speak for themselves, and then some. Commercial director Jean-Luc Pepin was kind enough to show me all of the 2010s and 2009s (from bottle), including the seldom seen Bourgogne Blanc. I will report on the 2009s in the April issue.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 94-97 RP

The 2018 Musigny Vieilles Vignes Grand Cru is even darker than the Bonnes-Mares. It has a spectacular bouquet of intense black fruit, blueberries and shucked oyster shells, the mineralité heightened over the Bonnes-Mares and lending a great deal of precision. The palate is medium-bodied with blueberry, boysenberry and black currant fruit, extraordinary tension, razor-sharp acidity and a dash of white pepper on the crystalline finish. One of the finest Musignys I have tasted from barrel at de Vogüé.Vinous Media | 97-99 VM(Domaine Comte de Vogüé Musigny Vieilles Vignes Grand Cru Red) A ripe and super-fresh nose offers up notes of black raspberry, plum liqueur, Asian-style tea and a whiff of incense. The racy, intense and mineral-driven big-bodied flavors retain outstanding delineation as well as an abundance of palate soaking dry extract before delivering stunningly good length where an interesting hint of citrus character in the form of mandarin orange appears. This incredibly powerful effort is both classy and highly complex and like the Bonnes Mares, is a wine that will live for decades. With that said, it’s not so backward and compact to preclude it being approachable after only 10 to 12 years. A knockout by any standard. (Drink starting 2043)Burghound | 97 BHAll the vines that are used to produce this extensive cuvée of Musigny are over 25 years’ old, so it always has good concentration. But in 2018, it’s an especially big, dense, powerful wine with masses of inky colour, assertive one-third new oak, plenty of plush bramble and black cherry fruit, undertones of sweet spices and liquorice and a chalky flourish. Needs time. Drinking Window 2026 - 2033.Decanter | 95 DEC(Musigny “Vieilles Vignes”- Domaine de Comte de Georges de Vogüé) The 2018 Musigny Vieilles Vignes was also in fine form at the time of my visit, as the racking for this cuvée was just starting and there were plenty of untouched casks to choose from for sampling. The wine is very deep and still very primary on both the nose and palate, with the bouquet wafting from the glass in a sappy blend of black cherries, sweet dark berries, dark chocolate, gamebird, woodsmoke, soil and vanillin oak. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and shows off excellent mid-palate depth of sappy fruit, with good mineral drive, ripe, seamless and buried tannins, fine focus and grip and a long, focused and classy finish. All this needs is time in the cellar! (Drink between 2038-2085).John Gilman | 95 JG