2016 Nuits St Georges Les Vaucrains
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Tasting notes
The 2016 Nuits Saint-Georges Les Vaucrains 1er Cru has an outstanding bouquet with intense black cherry and blackcurrant fruit infused with minerals, the oak seamlessly integrated and demonstrating superb delineation. The palate is medium-bodied with layers of spicy black fruit. I admire the manner in which the oak is fused. There is real density on the feisty finish that shows great persistence. Excellent. Tasted blind at the 2016 Burgfest tasting.
Critic scores
Average Score
Neal Martin
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
More reviews and scores
Bright, dark red-ruby. Classic Vaucrains aromas of dark raspberry, black cherry, dark chocolate and violet, plus a whiff of menthol. Sappy, highly concentrated and dense, showing a very fine-grained texture but serious medicinal reserve in the early going. Finishes very long and subtle, with broad, late-arriving dusty tannins and a repeating note of dark chocolate. The most powerful of these 2016s but also unusually silky for young Vaucrains.
There are just nine barrels from 1.5 hectares of vines this year, so make the most of the 2016 Nuits St Georges 1er Cru les Vaucrains if you can locate a bottle. It has a very intense but classy bouquet with pure red cherry, cranberry and wild strawberry scents infused by cold stone aromas. I adore the delineation of these aromatics. The palate is defined by filigree tannin, pitch perfect acidity, an almost sorbet-like freshness than dovetails into a lightly spiced, fine boned finish that is a pure joy. This may even surpass the 2015.