2011 Vosne Romanee Vigneux

The 2011 Vosne-Romanee Les Vigneaux is located down toward Les Suchots and come from Tardy’s 30-year-old vines that tend to produce small berries. It has a candied bouquet with red cherries, orange blossom and touches of vanilla and smoke. The palate is medium-bodied with very smooth tannins, lovely texture caressing the mouth with sweet red cherry and strawberry notes toward the silky finish. Drink now-2018. I have met Guillaume Tardy a few times in London, but this was the first time that I dropped by at his winery on the Route Nationale in Vosne (word of warning for first-time visitors: blink and you will miss the sign.) The roots of the domaine stem from his family’s metiers for Domaine Meo-Camuzet and as Jean-Nicolas Meo regained control, the Tardy family had to effectively rebuild their own domaine. So Jean Tardy began acquiring small vineyard parcels, though never less than a plot that could regularly yield six barrels per vintage in order for them to be worth bottling on their own. Guillaume himself started working with his father in 1997 but his first vintage was 2001, after working at the Picardy Winery in Australia. His 2011s were bottled in February. Guillaume told me that he is looking for silky tannins and freshness and that neatly sums up his wines that I have praised in the past and have no hesitation in doing so again. No known American importer.