2012 - Vosne-Romanee 1er Cru Les Rouges, Jean Grivot

The 2012 Vosne-Romanée Les Rouges bristles with pure energy and tension. Dark red cherry, crushed rocks, graphite and new leather burst onto the palate in a wine that impresses for its sense of energy and sense of direction. The 2012 boasts fabulous balance from start to finish. Frankly, it is hard to put the glass down. The Rouges is pure excitement in the glass.

The 2012 Vosne-Romanee 1er Cru Les Rouges has a light and dainty, stony bouquet that gradually gains momentum in the glass. The palate is fresh and vibrant, exerting a gentle grip whereby freshness and energy is prioritized over structure and length, a “long” rather than “broad” wine in the mouth. This will be slightly earlier drinking than some of Etienne’s other crus. First stop - week 5 - Domaine Jean Grivot in Vosne-Romanee. After several dispiriting and unremittingly tenebrous days when the sun appeared to have excommunicated from Burgundy for simply being too bright, today there is not a puff of white in the sky and so the drive to Vosne-Romanee is a joy. La famille Grivot were all at the winery, including Etienne’s wife Marielle who I had met chez Simon Bize three weeks earlier (her brother Patrick having passed away recently). For me, this address acts as a barometer for how well the appellation performed since the domaine is virtually a roll call of the villages most esteemed premier crus, not to mention one or two choice grand crus. After the trials and tribulations of a fraught growing season recounted elsewhere, Etienne dusted off the secateurs on 20 September and the harvest continued for 8 days thereafter. He told me that due to the cold spring the malo-lactics fermentation had commenced later than usual and had sulfured his barrels three times during elevage. Despite everything, the barrel samples that were assembled as close to the final blend as possible, were exemplary from start to finish, despite having to swerve around reduction here and there. The “Accad” days have long been forgotten and having tracked most of their wines over the last 15 years, I have discerned a tangible “fine-tuning” in the last five or six years. If you are ever lucky enough to be able to compare and contrast his Vosne premier crus then it is immediately evident that Etienne expresses the typicite of each with greater clarity than say a decade ago. It cannot be denied