Chateau de La Tour Clos Vougeot Vielles Vignes Masterclass

This was a great masterclass conducted by Francois Labet of the domaine and Andrew Jefford MW. Chateau de La Tour owns the largest parcel in the Clos (some 7 hectares) and the oldest wines (planted in 1910), so this was a unique chance to taste through a mini-vertical of some of the very best wines produced in the Clos de Vougeot. I expected the wines to be good, but even then, the consistency of quality really impressed me. The wines all had the sense of broadness and warm generosity that I look for in a good Clos Vougeot, yet there was a purity of fruit along with an elegance and breed to them that escapes poorer examples. For all that, the wines were far from delicate. In fact, every one of these wines seem to be built in true Vin de Garde style, with firm tannins and a grippy whole cluster sense of extract that made them rather challenging to taste first thing on a Saturday morning - something that is rare in these days where so many houses are going for gently early drinking wines. The fact that the scores across the entire range were so consistently high speaks volumes though. This was a truly impressive tasting from a truly impressive house.

• 2008 Domaine Château De La Tour Clos Vougeot Vieilles Vignes 93 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Clos Vougeot Grand Cru

  Execllent. This had a Beautiful nose. Lots of lovely red cherries, raspberries and currants, slightly candied at the edges, punctuated with a floral perfume and even a touch of mint and spice alongside more funky notes of soil, bramble and vine stems. Very aromatic, with a whole range of expression, from bassy notes to fresh, lifted aromas. The use of whole clusters was obvious here, adding plenty of interest on the bouquet. Great stuff. In the mouth, the wine showed lots of substance, lots of depth, with palate staining flavours of warm red fruit, pure cherry notes again here, together with some rusty mineral and earthy notes. Lovely freshness and focus too. The long, powerful finish showed a bit of the sweetness picked up on the nose, with a cherry liquer accent and then, again, just that hint of stems in the background. All that pure, sweet red fruit gave the wine a deceptive sense of drinkability at first, but though the wine was very good indeed, it was really still quite monolithic at the moment, with layers of firm, structured tannins rather obviously making their presence felt. It needs patience, but this wine has the balance and structure to age beautifully - I think it will be an absolutely superb wine when its time comes in say 15 years or so down the road.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No

• 2007 Domaine Château De La Tour Clos Vougeot Vieilles Vignes 92 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Clos Vougeot Grand Cru

  A really good wine in the context of the vintage, but I thought it was probably the weakest of a very strong vertical. Slightly less perfumed on the nose as the 2008, but still with nice aromatics, the bouquet here showed dark cherries and red berries on a background of soil, stems and fresh cut flowers. Some mint was floating around in there as well. Very attractive. The palate was perhaps more precisely focused than either the 2008 and 2006, but though rich for a 2007, with some lovely dark cherry and red fruit flavours, it did not quite the depth of the other vintages. What it did have though was a nice breadth of flavours and lovely freshness wed to a noble sense of structure. The finish was very charming in spite of that structure, closing out with delicious flavours of bramble, mint and lots of warm spices. This will make a great mid-term wine. A splendid effort in a difficult year, and it should continue to improve over the next decade or so.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No

• 2006 Domaine Château De La Tour Clos Vougeot Vieilles Vignes 94 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Clos Vougeot Grand Cru

  Wow - this was superb. It was my pick of the bunch from the post-2000 wines. It had beautiful nose, full of fleshy cherry scents, dried earthy notes, black tea, rose petals, spice and just a touch of oak - all making for a very articulate and harmonious bouquet. As would be expected after that nose, the palate was very yummy. Lots of structure and great freshness, but once you got past the layer of fine grained tannins, it was actually giving a lot of drinking pleasure with a really elegant show of red fruit flavours. I just loved the way the wine came together, nicely integrated in a delicious, fleshy whole. Lovely finish too, lengthy, elegant, with more red fruits and a long linger of spice with a touch of mint. This obviously needs a lot more time yet for the tannins to soften and integrated, but boy there is such good material here for long-term aging. It is a bit more showy than either the 2007 or 2008 at the moment, but should age better than the former and every bit as well as, or even better than the later. Brilliant stuff.

  Post a Comment / 3 people found this helpful, do you? Yes - No

• 2003 Domaine Château De La Tour Clos Vougeot Vieilles Vignes 93 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Clos Vougeot Grand Cru

  A very, very good 2003 indeed. Many people in the room really loved this - I did not think it was the stongest wine on the day, but it was definitely very solid. It did stick out from the line-up somewhat though. Darker in colour than the other wines, it was different on the nose as well - a lot more herbs and spices, darker cherry scents with just a touch of kirsch, some toasty roastiness and a hint of new world rubberiness. This was clearly from a much warmer vintage. The palate attacked with fleshy fruit - ripe dark cherries at the fore. It was rich, powerful and broad shouldered - well fruited, but well balanced, with lots of extract and very firm tannins adding a sure sense of structure. Great concentration, supreb length too, with lots of staying power - here, the dark cherry tones were wed to a slightly dried, rasiny note and more toasted, roasted nuances. I thought it lacked the finesse and subtlety of the other vintages, and the roasted new world notes threw me off a bit, but there was no doubting that this was an very good wine. It needs time though, lots of it. I would not touch this for at least a decade more.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No

• 1999 Domaine Château De La Tour Clos Vougeot Vieilles Vignes 94 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Clos Vougeot Grand Cru

  This was one 1999 Burg that still remains very tight, and yet it was one of the very strongest wines in a vertical that featured many strong wines. The nose was more reticent than any of the other on show - there were some minty, brambly overtones with dark cherry tones underneath, but there were still slightly hidden, bubbling away in the background. The bouquet here really needs some time to open up, but it already had a nice allure. The palate was just as tight, almost closed, but again, there was clearly tons of quality here. It was very firm, with a real grip of fine tannins, but beyond that, there is a glorious transperancy of fruit - deep, pure dark cherry tones that resounded on the midpalate. Past that, it was how complete the wine was that really struck me. Superb structure, great balance, beautiful roundness, brilliant length. A real gem, but it was clearly still in its shell, with just the tiniest hints of flower, mint and bramble floating around the fruit notes towards the finish. This will be a regal wine in time, it certainly seemed to have the best bone structure and breed of the line-up. Now all it needs is patience. I would say another 5-6 years before it starts to really show.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No

• 1996 Domaine Château De La Tour Clos Vougeot Vieilles Vignes 93 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Clos Vougeot Grand Cru

  A lovely wine - it had charming nose, the most high-toned of the lots, with fresh cut flowers, a hint of stems, red cherries and, uniquely in the line-up, a touch of blue rather than red fruited scents. As with the other wines though, there was a touch of earth, bramble and mint that made up the rest of the bouquet. Very attractive, almost pretty. The use of stems must have helped on the palate, because the acidity did not stick out quite as much in some of the other wines fron the vintage, and there was a sense of sinew and structure, almost a base of complexity and substance formed by the whole cluster fermentation. Of all the wines in the line-up, the fruit here was the most developed, with fleshy cherries, raspberries and blueberries, really high-toned, higher-pitch than on the other wines. The finish was long and lovely with a mouthfull of wild raspberries and a hint of bramble closing the wine out. Very yummy, but somehow it was still a bit disjointed with the tannins sticking out a bit at the end, but given the lovely raw materal I do think it will come around over the next few years. A really good Clos Vougeot.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No