2002 Vosne Romanee Les Chaumes

The 2002 Vosne-Romanee Chaumes comes from one of Louis-Michel’s first vintages after taking over running of the family estate. It seems to have been cut from a different cloth to later wines, the bouquet more loose-knit and rustic, the palate moving firmly into secondary flavors with a leathery, quite meaty middle and finish. It is a little simple compared to the wines nowadays, but should drink for another 4-5 years. I will be covering Louis-Michel’s highly praised; elusive and expensive wines in future issues of The Wine Advocate. But for now, in October I attended a fascinating tasting of older vintages to glean how they age. Certainly, these wines are imbued with a citrus freshness that verges of sorbet-like with some wines. They clearly go out to impress and impress they do. What these wines refuse to do is short-change the Burgundy-lover apropos perfume or flavor; they willingly go out there to satisfy the senses. They also appear to age slowly and gracefully, and I suspect most of these will reach their plateau after around a decade in the cellar.