93 pts; Burghound
Note: 55+ year old vines
Producer note: Co-director Aubert de Villaine made a remarkable statement when I saw him in November when he told me that "in the 46 years that I have been a vigneron in Burgundy, I have never seen a vintage such as 2011 where the difference between success and failure hinged so completely on luck. The only way that I can succinctly describe the vintage is to call it a fantastic surprise and to add that we were so very lucky. It's the only way that I can make sense of a vintage which started so very early and had an April that was hotter than July and we still had not only ripe but excellent raw materials with which to make our wines. We began the growing season much earlier than usual with unusually hot and dry conditions. The vines love this kind of weather when they're just beginning to grow and thus they prospered remarkably well until just before the flowering which occurred about the 20th of May; this timing is about the same as what we experienced in 2003 and 2007. Unfortunately from that point forward the vineyards, and those who work in them, were consistently battered by chaotic conditions that included brutal swings from cold to heavy rains to extreme heat and seemingly each of these changes engendered damaging storms. We were slightly luckier in the Côte de Nuits than in the Côte de Beaune as there was significantly less rainfall. That was only a small benefit though because when you farm biodynamically with contact products, this necessitated multiple passages through the vineyards after each rain. We were really nervous in July and ever watchful for the ultimate enemy of the vine, which of course is botrytis, particularly since the rain had swelled the berries and this distention caused the skins to be very thin with multiple micro-fissures that could thus easily be penetrated. Happily the expected July heat never materialized and thus the botrytis, which loves warm and humid weather, didn't spread unduly. The weather changed again on the 15th of August and became very warm and sometimes even scorching which is often a problem if the growing season is dry but in 2011 there were plenty of water reserves and this allowed the vines to push the fruit toward its final maturity. In fact, the rise in sugars and concomitant fall in acidities were nothing short of spectacular in their rapidity. Some sectors in Burgundy suffered from hail but I am relieved to say that in Vosne we were spared this damage. Unfortunately the storms continued and each time we waited while holding our collective breath that botrytis wouldn't explode and take the entire crop with it. This is why I say that sometimes fate is the only difference between success and failure. The first rule of making great wine is to always wait for the full maturation of your fruit to occur. The second rule is that you must accept the risk of losing all of your fruit in order to achieve rule number one. And in all of the years that I have been doing this never had it been so hard to wait because as I say the conditions were perfect for botrytis. As I observed, we were lucky and I was never so glad to finally start picking, which we did on the 2nd of September with the Corton and then again on the 5th for our vines in Vosne. When we began picking it was warm and dry and despite constant weather predictions of storms we never had even one day of rain, which if not a miracle then it's close to one. There was a lot of sorting required and you had to be very thorough in order to excise unripe berries and those that were damaged and/or affected by rot. To call it exacting work would be a huge understatement. Even after the sorting work that we did in the vineyard we then reexamined the fruit on a vibrating sorting table surrounded by a team of 14 people who then did it again. It was very interesting to see all of the secondary fruit, insects, in particular lady bugs that were found in the reject bins. We slowly picked this way until the 13th of September even though each day we feared being washed out as the weather service continually predicted stormy weather was just around the corner. Romanée-Conti and Montrachet were picked on the 6th, La Tâche on the 5th and 6th, Richebourg on the 7th and 8th, Romanée St. Vivant on the 8th and 9th, Grands Echézeaux on the 9th and 10th and we finished with Echézeaux between the 10th and 11th. I would put our yield in 2011 at about 30% less than a normal crop though I am exceptionally happy with the quality, in particular with just how ripe the phenolics were. We used on average about 60% whole clusters and I was surprised not only with how deep the colors were but also how quickly they arrived, which isn't always the case. The cuvaisons were on the long side at between 21 and 24 days. As to the wines themselves, they are based on their fruit with really wonderfully fine-grained tannins. They actually remind me quite a bit of the 2009s, not in the sense that they are as ripe and filled with sunshine but in their tenderness and particularly in the style of the tannins. I like them a lot and they should provide for many a pleasurable experience." The Domaine's 2011s are excellent and among the best that the vintage has to offer. As M. de Villaine suggests, they are wines that should age extremely well yet be approachable sooner than is typical, at least by the ageworthy standards of this venerable address.
Tasting note: Here the nose is noticeably more reserved and while ripe, the dense, gorgeously complex and highly spiced aromas are rather cool. Aggressive swirling does, if only grudgingly, liberate the notes of violets and rose petals, hoisin, soy and clove along with black pinot fruit, cassis and plum. The exceptionally rich but brooding, intense and very serious broad-shouldered flavors possess outstanding middle-weight concentration before culminating in an energetic and palate staining finish. This stunningly long effort is also quite fine by the usual standards of the appellation because while this is certainly muscular, it's taut and sleek rather than forbidding. The "problem", if you want to call it that, is that this lacks the depth of the Echézeaux. I stress that I am fully cognizant about not rushing to judgment at such an early juncture, particularly given this wine's laudatory track record of outperforming vintage in and vintage out, but at present this is borderline one-dimensional even though all of the expected underlying material is present. What is clear is that this is extremely classy juice that will require 15 to 20 years to arrive at its full peak though what it will be when it arrives there is less clear than usual.
