The 2012 Beaune 1er Cru Clos du Roi comes from 2 parcels that belonged to Ponnelle and Vioilland, some vines planted as far back as 1901. The 2012 was raised in one new barrel out of a total of three. It has an agreeable, jammy bouquet with raspberry and crushed strawberry scents, though it needs more delineation. The palate is nicely balanced with red cherry, kirsch and chocolate notes. Smooth in the mouth and unashamedly quite modern in style, this will serve as decent early drinking.
Domaine de la Vougeraie was founded in 1998 when the domaines of Claudine Deschamps, Pierre Ponnelle, Louis Voilland and L’Heritier-Guyot were merged. I remember it well because at the time I was exporting L’Heritier-Guyot’s wines to Japan (to be frank, they were quite ordinary back then.) The man behind the venture was Jean-Claude Boisset, whose own considerable holdings meant that Domaine de la Vougeraie became a significant player in the Cote d’Or, with 37 hectares of prime vineyard including seven grand crus to their name. I have to be honest and say that like many others, I liked the first few vintages of their wine, but found them a little predictable and seemed to struggle for charm and personality. Perhaps that was a reflection of former winemaker Pascal Marchand applying the practices he had learned at Comte Armand: a lot of new oak with 100% de-stemmed fruit – not really my bag. When he departed for pastures new, incoming winemaker Pierre Vincent seemed to apply a gentler touch. The new oak is still part of the wines’ character, but there is certainly a more considered approach, plus he is more open to using whole cluster fruit. Managing such an array of wines with a relatively small team cannot be easy in challenging vintages such as 2012, or for that matter 2013. Pierre told me that his average yields were 22 hectoliters per hectare, though for the grand crus, they were down to 17 hectoliters per hectare.
Importer: Boisset Family Estates, St. Helena, CA; tel. (800) 878-1123
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