| Score: |
93+ ST.
"Bright yellow. Gingery peach, toast, crushed stone and smoky minerality on the slightly reduced nose. Rich, sweet and plush, with a touch of spice to the ripe, smoky stone fruit flavors. Boasts an almost glyceral sweetness today, but this very young wine needs time in bottle to lose some of its baby fat. Philippe Drouhin notes that this wine always gets reductive during elevage and that this quality takes at least a year in bottle to dissipate. He likes Clos des Mouches old, pointing out that the 2004 and 2002 bottlings are still young. But then Drouhin admits that he generally prefers older wines because he dislikes the aromas and flavors of new oak. According to winemaker Jerome Faure-Brac, the 2011 whites were radically different after the malolactic fermentations.Even though he did not stir the lees, he said, the wines showed more body and harmony following the malos and revealed much more character.Acidity levels are now generally in the healthy 4.2 to 4.3 grams-per-liter range, added Faure-Brac, although the Meursaults are more like 3.85 to 3.9.Due to coulure in Meursault, Drouhin's yields in this village are barely higher than those of the previous year.Faure-Brac compared 2011 to 2007, "but the new vintage has more body and is more harmonious."Drouhin's 2010s have turned out splendidly but I have omitted notes on the final three wines because they were still in tank at the time of my visit.The Corton-Charlemagne and Batard-Montrachet were about as strong as I suggested they would be in Issue 158, while the hugely rich, structured Montrachet Marquis de Laguiche, which remained on its lees until last December, had gained in complexity and harmoniousness while losing some of its more exotic aspects and appears to offer 94-96 potential." Stephen Tanzer, Vinous.com, Sep 2012 |