2011 Pernand Vergelesses Clos de la Croix de Pierre

Medium red. Raspberry and cherry fruit aromas are complicated by chocolate, mocha and pepper nuances. Nicely supple in the mouth, with good sweetness to the flavors of red berries and pepper. Sound acidity and underlying minerality give the wine shape. Finishes with a gravelly nuance and a faintly dry edge.

The 2011 Pernand-Vergelesses 1er Cru Clos de la Croix Pierre has a generous cranberry and pomegranate-scented bouquet that demonstrates admirable delineation. The palate is fresh and clean, firm grip, quite masculine with a foursquare, slightly saline finish. Very fine. ||This was the first time I had been back to Louis Jadot’s expansive winery on the northern outskirts of Beaune since their memorable 150th anniversary tasting back in 2008. As I quipped in the previous issue, Jacques Lardiere was then talking about his imminent retirement that seemed to never come. But on this occasion, there was new winemaker Frederic Barnier there to greet me. He has large shoes to fill but he seems up to the task of steering this important Burgundy name to a new chapter, having worked alongside Jacques for a couple of years. “At the beginning, we were not so confident about the whites,” he explained in reference to his 2011s, “but it has been a nice surprise. The dry spring of 2011 affected the level of ripeness but it has lent freshness, but with low acidity.” We did not have time to taste the entire portfolio of over 80 crus, but instead took a sample of 20 white and reds from both the 2010 and 2011 vintages. eRobertParker.com.August, 2013