(aging in two-thirds new oak): Dark red. Black fruits, flowers, minerals and licorice on the vibrant nose, plus a whiff of truffle; I would have picked this blind as a Cote de Nuits wine. Dense, sappy and sweet but with a light touch and excellent definition thanks to its firm underlying minerality. At once delicate and strong, finishing spicy and long, with a flavor of crunchy berries. Not an earthy style of Corton. 92-94 points
By Stephen Tanzer
Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar, Jan/Feb 12

Producer note: Philippe Prost, Bouchard's winemaker, noted that 2010 was "an up and down growing season with a difficult flowering that resulted in a very small crop with a very high percentage of shot berries, especially in the Côte de Beaune. We began picking on the 20th of September and picked through the 1st of October. The harvest conditions were very cool so the super clean fruit arrived at the cuverie at much more reduced temperatures than is typical. This allowed for longer and entirely natural cool macerations. The harvest itself though was less stressful than usual for the simple reason that various parcels were ready at different times due to the highly heterogeneous flowering and thus we could methodically organize our harvest regimen. Moreover, thanks to the tiny crop and cool harvest weather we had absolutely no rot pressure so again, we could pick when we chose. By contrast 2009 and 2011 saw everything basically ready at the same time so it was much more difficult to optimize the harvest for each parcel. I did our normal vinification with one exception which is that I opted to use a higher percentage of whole clusters than usual though not for all wines. In fact, particularly in the Côte de Beaune it tended to be a lot or a little but not much in between. We also elected to reduce the percentages of new wood and a rough estimate would be 15 to 30% for the villages wines, 35 to 45% for the minor 1ers, 35 to 55% for the major 1ers and between 55 to 75% for the grands crus. We used one-year old wood for the remainder. As to the wines, they have lots of energy and really speak of their underlying terroirs. They're classic burgundies if you will. As to relative performance, every commune in the Côte de Nuits was excellent though if I had to choose just one, then I would anoint Gevrey as the star. In the Côte de Beaune it wasn't quite so homogenous. The best village in my view was Pommard though Volnay was only just behind. Savigny and Beaune were also both quite good if not exactly at the same level." Proust noted that the reds were bottled in December, 2011 and January, 2012 and most wines were not filtered and none were fined.

Tasting note: A brooding but impressively complex nose features notes of red currant, plum, earth and plenty of that Corton sauvage character. The textured, intense and broad-shouldered flavors possess excellent mid-palate concentration with fully mature structural elements. There is ample buffering sap, which is important as one would reasonably expect, this is a big and sleekly muscled wine with an explosively long, linear and overtly austere finish. The potential here is mostly impressive though note that plenty of patience is requisite.

Tasted: Apr 01, 2012 Score: 94 Drink: 2025+
- Comments: Don't miss!
Issue 46