Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux Vosne-Romanee 1er Cru "Les Suchots" 2008

93 BH

Notes:

Allen Meadows' Burghound, January 2011.
(from a .45 ha parcel situated at the very top of the vineyard). A classic Vosne nosethat is ultra spicy, complex, layered and extremely stylish with rich and relatively powerful flavors that possess ample volumeand are supported by very finely rendered tannins, a suave mouth feel and excellent length. In a word, terrific. 93 points and Outstanding!

Tasted recently at the Domain - we are not surprised by the score in the upper range of the scale. Focus and purity with great minerality. With the best piece of Suchots its easy to see why this is reference standard. Vins Rare

Pascal Lachaux described the 2008 as a "miracle vintage. The summerwas so wet that I'm convinced that if we had not gone to a policy ofallowing grasses and herbs to grow between our vines to absorb excesswater, we would have had a disaster. The north wind also helped enormouslyas it dried what rot there was and helped to concentrate the fruit as well. We even had a few vineyards with essentially no sorting required. Webegan picking on the 27th of September and brought in pretty good if nottruly excellent sugars as chaptalization was typically between .5 and 1%for each wine. I was very happy with our triage work in those vineyardsthat required it but just to be absolutely sure that there was nothingquestionable in any of our wines, I did a full week of lees settling. Thecolor and dry extract weren't easy to extract either so I did a 24 hourpost-fermentation heating to 40 C to fix the color. Yields were betterin 2008 for the 1ers and grands crus than in 2007 but not as good for thevillages wines. I love the '07s but I think the '08s have a bit moreoverall potential." Lachaux mentioned that he had relatively normalmalos, which is highly unusual for the vintage so I asked why that mighthave been, especially because his cellar is no warmer than average. Hisexplanation is worth repeating because I'm sure that there is something toit as a general observation. He told me that another reason that he didsuch an extended lees settling (dbourbage) was to avoid having to dose thenew wine so heavily with SO2 because of rot fears. Sulfur is not only ananti-oxidant but it also protects wine against bacteria but this is atwo-edged sword because helpful bacteria, such as those that initiate themalolactic fermentation are also inhibited. Thus, in many cellars themalos are necessarily more extended than usual.

Vins Rare

Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux Vosne-Romanee 1er Cru "Les Suchots" 2008

Name: Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux Vosne-Romanee 1er Cru "Les Suchots" 2008
Brand: Vins Rare
SKU: 2799
Price: 159.00 USD
Availability: OutOfStock