"The 2009 Nuits St. Georges Les Pruliers is a dark, hulking wine loaded with fruit. Inward and powerful, the Pruliers possesses serious stuffing and heft. With time in the glass some of the wine’s inner perfume reluctantly makes an appearance. A final blast of tar, spices, licorice, smoke and black fruits saturates the palate on the finish. The Pruliers will require quite a bit of patience. Tasted from tank. Anticipated maturity: 2019-2034.
This is a striking set of 2009s from Gouges. The estate is pursuing a slightly updated style in trying to make the entry-level wines more accessible early on. According to Gregoire Gouges the approach to the higher end wines remains the same, which is to say these remain sturdy Burgundies that benefit immensely from cellaring. The harvest at Gouges began on September 15. The fruit was 100% destemmed. Vinification started with a 3 day cold soak (at only modestly cold temperatures) followed by 10-15 days of cuvaison. The wines were racked after the malos, the lees were removed, and the wines were put back into barrel, where they finished (or were finishing) their elevage. All of the wines were aged in 20% new oak barrels." (WA)
"Good full red. Complex aromas of redcurrant, flowers, pepper and spices. Dense and silky but juicy too, with a floral, peppery perfume that reminded me of nebbiolo. A very ripe, elegantly styled, intense wine that finishes with real verve and length. A lovely showing." (IWC)
"As it usually is, this is aromatically more elegant with really lovely spice and game notes that add breadth to the ripe yet cool wild red berry fruit aromas. The rich, pure and quite generous medium-bodied flavors possess fine mid-palate concentration as the dry extract stains the palate and pushes the shaping tannins to the background on the solidly persistent finish. I very much like this as it's finer than the Porrets even if it's not more powerful or longer." (BH)
OUTSTANDING 2009 1er CRU RED BURGUNDY, ONE OF THE BEST BUY’S UNDER A $100 AND IT DISCOUNTS FOR $74.99.
2009 NUIT ST. GEORGES, LES PEULIERES, 1er CRU, Est. Btld. HENRI GOUGES
This was the mystery wine served a few weeks ago at my LA TACHE-RICHEBOURG-ROMANEE tasting/dinner described later on in detail in this issue of the Guide.
At the tasting, the wine received much praised and most felt it was in the caliber of the Premier and even some of the Grand Cru Vosne-Romanee wines served. Taster’s average was a very prestigious 93.5, my rating was a 93+ and the conservative rating Alan Meadows gave the wine a 91/93. And I am confident that if the completion it was compared against was not of the very great quality that it was, the wine would have most likely got a 94/95 from me and nearly the same (if not more) from the tasters.
The township of Nuit St. Georges lies adjacent to and just south of Vosne-Romanee. Generally the Nuit wines are hearty fellows and the soil in Nuit is generally richer the Vosne-Romanee, resulting in wines with a slightly earthy character and not as elegant as a Romanee wine. It exceptional years such as ’09 and from top growers like Henri Gouge, the commune produces some truly long-lived remarkable wines. Furthermore, the vineyard of Les Pruliers (where this wine comes from) often produces wines a bit less earthy and among the most elegant of the township. This is certainly the case with the exceptional ’09, a wine that I feel is one of the finest Burgundies around selling for under $100, and in this instance discounter to a bargain $74.95 (regular price is around $90).
Even today, the wine is delicious, but it will certainly gain with another 4 or 5 years of aging and keep well into the 2020’s.
In describing the overall qualities of this wine, I find myself in near total agreement with the Burghound, when he wrote of this wine saying, “As it usually is, this is aromatically more elegant with really lovely spice and game notes that add breadth to the ripe yet cool wild red berry fruit aromas. The rich, pure and quite generous medium-bodied flavors possess fine mid-palate concentration as the dry extract stains the palate and pushes the shaping tannins to the background on the solidly persistent finish. I very much like this as it's finer than the Porrets even if it's not more powerful or longer.”
RATING: 94/95
PRICE: $74.95 *** bargain
WHERE: Los Angeles Wine Co.
(Martin'sGuide to Wine Bargains)
Winery Notes:
Another deeply-colored wine. A nose of framboise, the ripest so far. Very complete. Some earthiness, very Nuits. Red licorice fruit flavors go on and on, very minty and mineral with tannins on the side. Lovely, classy and elegant, but powerful at the same time. 19.3/20 |
