2011 Clos St Denis

The 2011 Clos St. Denis seems to bring together the aromatics of the Charmes along with the darker fruit and greater sense of structure found in the Clos de La Roche. Smoke, tar, licorice, black cherries and plums are some of the many notes that blossom in the glass. An authoritative, powerful wine, the 2011 will need a few years to fully come together. The 2011 was vinified with 50% whole clusters and aged in 50% new oak.

(50% vendange entier; this spent six months in a new barrel before being racked into a one-year-old piece, both from Francois Freres): Good medium red. Aromas of currant, licorice, smoke and dried flowers. Suave and pliant in the mouth, with a lightly saline quality to the flavors of strawberry and dried flowers. Finishes with an intriguing peppery nuance and substantial dusty tannins. This wine would have been heavier without the stem component, noted Virgile Lignier, but it nonetheless does not have the finesse of texture of the Clos de la Roche. In fact, I am more aware of the stems here than I am in some of the wines fermented entirely with whole clusters, perhaps due in part to the lower average age of these vines, which were planted in 2003 and 1970.