2017 | Domaine Henri Gouges | Les Vaucrains (Magnum)

Slightly riper aromas of plum liqueur, violet, warm earth and plenty of sauvage character lead to intense and notably dense broad-shouldered flavors that display first-rate power on the serious and youthfully austere finish.

Reviews:

• Wine Advocate: The 2017 Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Les Vaucrains is another unusually suave offering from Gouges, offering up aromas of dark berry fruit, wild plums, baking chocolate and rich soil tones, subtly framed by cedary new wood. On the palate, the wine is medium to full-bodied, deep and dense, but notably open-knit and juicy at the core, concluding with a long, sapid finish. Given how forbidding Vaucrains can be, this is an almost disconcertingly charming effort. Many of Gouges' 2017s had been bottled when I visited in mid-December, so these notes report on bottled wines; sadly, those that were still in tank awaiting bottling were not in any state to be reviewed, so those will have to wait for another occasion. The harvest began on September 7 at this address, and Grégory Gouges reported rapid malolactic fermentations. His decision to bottle earlier than usual was occasioned, as at other domaines, by the desire to capture the wines' fruit tones in all their exuberance. This is an almost disconcertingly suave, elegant vintage chez Gouges, and while the range may shut down in bottle, that was hard to envisage during my December tasting.

• Vinous: The 2017 Nuits Saint-Georges Les Vaucrains 1er Cru has a lovely, intense bouquet that combines blue and black fruit, crushed violet petals and incense. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannin, showing a little more cohesion than the Les Pruliers, if not quite the same mineral drive as Domaine Chevillon’s. Still, there is decent length and depth to this Les Vaucrains, though it will need several years in bottle.

Producer Information

Domaine Henri Gouges is a highly regarded producer in the Burgundy commune of Nuits-Saint-Georges with holdings in a number of its premier cru vineyards. It makes mostly red wine from Pinot Noir, the dominant variety of the region. Though holding no land in grand cru sites, the premier crus of the domaine and the wider Nuits-Saint-Georges appellation are considered to be some of the finest in the Côte de Nuits, the most renowned being Les Saint-Georges. The domaine was founded in 1919 by Henri Gouges and continues to be owned and operated by the family, which dates its history back several generations earlier than the eponymous estate. Gouges was a prominent figure, who made several notable contributions to the region. He was among the first producers to eschew the Burgundy négociant system that was often viewed as corrupt. Instead, in the 1920s, Gouges championed estate bottling, an uncommon practice at the time. In the 1930s, during the earliest designation of Burgundy appellations, Gouges successfully campaigned against naming any Nuits-Saint-Georges vineyards as grand crus when he was both mayor of the village and an appointed member of the INAO (France's national appellations body). The modern vineyard holdings of Domaine Henri Gouges cover 14.5 hectares (36 acres) including parcels in seven premier cru-designated sites. Almost all the wines made are varietally Pinot Noir, however a limited amount of white wines is also produced. A Pinot Blanc is made under the broad Bourgogne Blanc appellation, while the premier cru Clos des Porrets-Saint-Georges is one of the rare sites where both Pinot Noir and Chardonnay are allowed to be grown. It is actually a small, enclave monopole within the larger Les Porrets-Saint-George Premier Cru vineyard. The other white is from the Les Perrières vineyard, where Gouges makes a white wine from mutated Pinot Noir. This "white" Pinot Noir can be given a range of titles, from Pinot Blanc, Pinot Musigny to Pinot Gouges. Pinot Gouges – another of Henri Gouges' lasting legacies – is a cloned type of this mutation discovered and propagated by Gouges himself.

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