Wine Advisor
Chateau de la Tour, Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru Vieilles Vignes 2014
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
(this is the last vintage of this wine to come entirely from a block of vines planted in 1910, and the last to be labeled Vieilles Vignes de Plus de 100 Ans, as François Labet is beginning a replanting program; beginning with 2015, this wine will come from several of Labet's holdings around the Clos and will simply be called Vieilles Vignes): Bright ruby-red. Lovely mineral and peony high notes lift dark fruits on the nose. Sappy, dense and penetrating, offering terrific concentration and lift to its flavors of dark berries, licorice and minerals. A superb vintage for this wine, less austere than some previous years. We're coming from an era of cooler soils to warmer soils, noted Labet. Global warming has been very good for Clos-Vougeot. This thick but energetic wines finishes with suave but serious building tannins and superb length. Incidentally, there was no separate Hommage bottling in 2014.
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
Deeper red-ruby color than the regular cuvée. Riper aromas of blackcurrant, licorice and menthol, along with a tarry nuance. Sweet, plush and deep; considerably more tactile than the regular Clos-Vougeot (this is 13. 5% natural alcohol). Saline, concentrated wine with a chewy quality and an almost chocolatey ripeness. This will merit a score at the high end of my projected range if it develops more personality during its final months of élevage. This cuvée includes the Homage a Jean Morin fruit in 2014. It was previously made from just one parcel of old vines but as of 2014 includes the estate's oldest vines in all of its parcels in Clos-Vougeot.
About the Producer
Chateau De La Tour is located in the wine-producing village of Vougeot under the Cote de Nuits appellation in Burgundy, France. It is the largest and largest vineyard in the wine-producing village. A prestigious winery. Chateau De La Tour was founded in 1890 by the Labet Family and the Dechelette Family and has a history of more than 100 years. Since the 1930s, all wines produced by Chateau De La Tour have been bottled in-house. In the 1970s and early 1980s, the wines produced by Chateau De La Tour experienced a relatively low period; by 1986, after the young Francois Labet took over the management of the winery , Chateau De La Tour winery began to carry out technical cooperation with the famous wine brewing master Guy Accad (Guy Accad), borrowing Mr. Guy's method to manage vineyards and brewing wine, and successfully produced fine wines of excellent quality, Revived the reputation of the winery. Since then, the quality of Chateau De La Tour's wines has been steadily increasing after the hiring of master winemaker Jean-Pierre Confuron as the winery's chief winemaker. Chateau De La Tour owns a total of 6 hectares of vineyards, planted only with Pinot Noir (Pinot Noir), a single grape variety. The vineyards of the winery are located on an upper slope in the village of Vaux, adjacent to the wine-producing village of Musigny. The soil is mostly brown limestone, which is very suitable for the growth of vines. In terms of vineyard management, unlike most wineries in Vauville, Chateau De La Tour adheres to an organic management method and pays great attention to the protection and appreciation of the land. It is worth mentioning that the production of the vineyards of Château De Letoux is very low, with less than 2,500 liters of grape juice per hectare of vineyard, thus guaranteeing the excellent quality of the grapes. In terms of winemaking, Chateau De La Tour has always believed that good grapes make high-quality wines, and every drop of high-quality wine is the crystallization of high-quality grapes. Therefore, the winery pays great attention to the wine-making process. When picking the grapes, the winery uses wicker baskets to collect the grapes, so that the oxidized grapes are filtered out, and the remaining grapes are carefully selected for whole bunch fermentation using natural yeast. In order to preserve the original flavor and varietal characteristics of the wine to the greatest extent, Deletou Winery has always insisted on not adopting processes such as filtration and clarification of the wine. Wines from the winery are bottled and stored in underground cellars for a decade or more before being released to the market. Therefore, most of the wines produced by Chateau De La Tour are full-bodied, powerful, rich in flavor and have great aging potential.
