2012 Chambolle Musigny Les Amoureuses
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The 2012 Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Amoureuses has a precise bouquet with blackberry, blueberry and minerals, a vivacious nose that could seduce from ten paces. The palate is precise and focused: superb acidity with a strict controlled and quite penetrating finish. Excellent. It is always a pleasure to visit the indefatigable Mounir Saouma at his hideaway winery just off the Beaune periphique. He is a winemaker you can jest with, and he is often victim of my sardonic Essex humor (for example, when enthusing about obtaining one of five barrels of a premier cru, I dryly enquired whether the other four were sold off for distillation - I would not say that to Aubert de Villaine.) And I appreciate Mounir's wines. They used to taste a little too fat and almost over-powering in their youth, but I think he is fine-tuning his reductive winemaking style, achieving more freshness and vitality. I tasted his 2012 reds since the whites were still undergoing malolactic. Among the tidal wave of opinions, one that he emphasized was that to capture the quality of the vintage under cork, the wines should be bottled late, and not in spring when Burgundy will resound to the clinking of glass. Mounir also told me that he paid 50% more from wines in 2012 than in 2011, but that he intends to keep prices within 15% increase. Importers: Vintus LLC, Pleasantville, NY; tel. (914) 769-3000, Atherton Imports, Menlo Park, CA; tel. (650) 328-6639
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Neal Martin
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
More reviews and scores
Full, bright red. The aromas of raspberry, crushed stone and white pepper convey an impression of sappy energy. Urgent, vibrant and explosive on the palate, with high-pitched flavors of raspberry and crushed rock. The bright acidity and suave tannins are almost invisible here owing to the wine's sheer intensity but give the fruit outstanding lift and weightlessness. Finishes with palate-staining perfume. From very active limestone soil, where the vines' roots penetrate deep into the mother rock, according to Saouma.
The 2012 Chambolle-Musigny Les Amoureuses is simply celestial. Intensely floral and lifted at first, the Amoureuses fleshes out beautifully with layer after layer of pure flavor. Sweet, succulent dark cherries, flowers, mint and white pepper take on attractive, saline-inflected dimensions of brightness. The tannins are present, but they are silky and suave throughout. in 2012, the Amoureuses is simply a model of restrained elegance.
The 2012 Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Amoureuses has a precise bouquet with blackberry, blueberry and minerals, a vivacious nose that could seduce from ten paces. The palate is precise and focused: superb acidity with a strict controlled and quite penetrating finish. Excellent. ||It is always a pleasure to visit the indefatigable Mounir Saouma at his hideaway winery just off the Beaune periphique. He is a winemaker you can jest with, and he is often victim of my sardonic Essex humor (for example, when enthusing about obtaining one of five barrels of a premier cru, I dryly enquired whether the other four were sold off for distillation - I would not say that to Aubert de Villaine.) And I appreciate Mounir's wines. They used to taste a little too fat and almost over-powering in their youth, but I think he is fine-tuning his reductive winemaking style, achieving more freshness and vitality. I tasted his 2012 reds since the whites were still undergoing malolactic. Among the tidal wave of opinions, one that he emphasized was that to capture the quality of the vintage under cork, the wines should be bottled late, and not in spring when Burgundy will resound to the clinking of glass. Mounir also told me that he paid 50% more from wines in 2012 than in 2011, but that he intends to keep prices within 15% increase. Wine Advocate.February, 2014