2013 Vosne Romanee Aux Reas

The 2013 Vosne-Romanee Aux Réas comes from the family's 1.7-hectares single parcel of 15- and 8-year-old vines. Matured in 50% new oak, I feel that comes across just a little strongly on the nose at the expense of terroir expression. The palate is ripe and succulent on the entry with fleshy black cherry and cranberry fruit, firm tannins and a voluminous finish thanks partly to the application of wood. It should age nicely as there is real substance here, so afford this 3-5 years in bottle.

The 2013 Vosne-Romanee Aux Réas comes from the family's 1.7-hectares single parcel of 15- and 8-year-old vines. Matured in 50% new oak, I feel that comes across just a little strongly on the nose at the expense of terroir expression. The palate is ripe and succulent on the entry with fleshy black cherry and cranberry fruit, firm tannins and a voluminous finish thanks partly to the application of wood. It should age nicely as there is real substance here, so afford this 3-5 years in bottle. ||I often think that prospective MW students studying for years for those letters after their name, should rather simply be asked to explain the various strands of the Gros family. If they can get that right, they deserve and MW as far as I am concerned. The domaine is managed by Caroline Parent who operates out of a winery just off the Beaune périphique. She took over from her father François and since 2010 has been joined by her 23-year old brother Mathias, who debuted his own wine under his name this year. They work together in the vineyard and look after the vinification, part of a long-term transfer from father to son. Caroline herself has her own négoçiant business, with the wines sourced from her family's vines for the reds and bottled wines for the wines. Caroline also mentioned an intra-familial exchange in plots. Her Vosne-Romanée Clos de la Fontaine will go to Bernard Gros (Domaine Gros Frère & Soeur) in return for the Clos Vougeot Musigni, although there is no timeframe in place for that. I asked her about the growing season. |"The spring was classic in March and April with a regular start of the growing season and a good amount of future grapes. In May and June we had continued rain, and as a result, a late flowering. The hail in Côte de Beaune on the 23rd of July impacted our vineyards in Savigny-les-Beaune, Beaune, Pommard and for our parcels of Bourgogne located under Pommard. The average loss is about 80%. For Côte de Nuits we had some millerandage. Malic acidity was quite high. The grapes of Côte de Beaune and Côte de Nuits were all in a very good sanitary state at the time we harvested from 24 September: cool temperatures have prevented botrytis (we had only very few). Polyphenols have been extracted easily with a good color extraction as well, but the degrees were low. A the stage of the barreling, the wines are all in fruit, with a good acidity, and we are confident that for vintage 2013 if the quantity is lost, quality is not lost."||This domaine’s wines tend to get a little overshadowed or at least conflated with the various scions of the Gros family, in particular with her cousin, Anne. I find the wines far improved than a decade ago, and their 2013s are worthy follow-ups to the 2012s, even if they do not quite reach the same level of quality. Some of the hail-affected vines in the Côte de Beaune seemed a little downtrodden by the challenges of the vintages, though there was some surprisingly fine examples from Savigny courtesy of their vines in les Boucherottes and Clos des Guettes. Within Vosne, I discerned as much joy in the Echézeaux as the Richebourg, and given their prospective prices I would probably err toward the former.| eRobertParker.com.December, 2014