2010 Domaine Drouhin-Laroze Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru, Cote de Nuits, France 750ml

A slightly riper blend of red and blue pinot fruit, violets and plenty of warm earth also suffuses the rich, full-bodied and very serious broad-shouldered flavors. This enjoys an abundance of tannin-buffering dry extract that confers a sappy texture to the driving, complex and hugely long finish. This is a first-rate example of this uneven appellation and well worth considering.

Drouhin-Laroze?s parcels of the large, but very famous Clos Vougeot is in the prized upper-third, from which the Cistercian Monks of the Citeaux Abbey historically made wine for the Popes of Avignon, because it produced the best wine. Today, the vineyard is further subdivided, the Laroze holdings are in the prime ?Plante d?Abbe? and the ?Quartier de Marci Haut? subsections of the Clos.