2012 Domaine de la Vougeraie Musigny Grand Cru

(made entirely with whole clusters; aged in one-third new, one-third once-used and one-third two-year-old barrels): Bright, deep red-ruby. Reduced, musky nose hints at black raspberry, mocha and crushed rock. Powerful and dense but youthfully imploded, conveying a more saline quality and a lower pitch than the Bonnes-Mares. Today I don't find the ineffable high notes a barrel sample displayed in November of 2013 but this wine is extremely backward. Best right now on the explosive, slowly mounting finish, which saturates the palate with crushed stone and spices. This will need considerable patience.

(100% vendange entier; one of three barrels is new): Bright dark red. Knockout nose shows great spicy lift to the aromas of ripe raspberry, smoke, crushed rock, mocha and pepper. Thick in the mouth but with uncanny energy and definition delivering outstanding verve and power to the dense, sappy flavors of red and darker fruits, pungent blood orange, minerals and spices. This wonderfully complex wine is nearly painful today. Really stains the palate with fruits, minerals and spices on the gripping, very long finish. Delivers the terroir specificity of this great site in spades.

A regal, majestic Burgundy, the 2012 Musigny is totally alive in the glass. Sweet, perfumed aromatics meld into red berries, mint and anise and wild flowers in an impeccable, beautifully layered wine. The 2012 will naturally take a number of years to peak, but it is absolutely stunning even at this early stage. I especially like the sense of energy here. What an inviting and utterly irresistible wine this is. The 2012 was vinified with 100% whole clusters.