Wine Advisor
Henri Boillot, Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru 2014
View analysis
Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
Bright, dark red. Captivating aromas and flavors of raspberry, flowers and gibier, lifted by a note of white pepper. Comes across as distinctly wild after Boillot's estate bottlings from the Côte de Beaune. Quite broad and round for both Clos Vougeot and the 2014 vintage, offering noteworthy freshness, pliancy and depth. Finishes very smooth and long, with ripe, fine-grained tannins and no hard edges.
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
(aged in 75% new oak, but Boillot used 350-liter barrels to get more freshness): Healthy dark red. Reticent aromas of black cherry, chocolate, menthol and herbs are less fruity today than the Volnays here. Large-scaled, round and sweet, showing more complex, soil-driven salinity than easy fruit in the early going. Powerful material here. Finishes saline, ripely tannic and long. This wine may need a solid eight years in the cellar to approach maturity.
About the Producer
Domaine Henri Boillot, located in the wine-producing village of Meursault in the Cote de Beaune, Burgundy, France, is a winery with a long history of quality. The vineyards of Château Boileau are located in the Côtes de Bern and Cote de Nuits appellations. The grapes for the white wines are mainly produced in the Grand Cru and Premier Cru of Prigny-Montrachet, where the soil is mainly brown limestone with occasional limestone clay soils, giving the white wines a complex and elegant taste. The grapes for the red wines come mainly from the first growths of the Volnay appellation, where the soils are mainly schist and limestone, giving the wines aromatic intensity and finesse. Château Boisrot follows traditional winemaking techniques. When the grapes reach optimum ripeness, they are picked by hand and transported to the winery. In the winery, the grapes are carefully selected and destemmed by the winery workers in order to select the best quality fruit. For the white wines, the grapes are pressed after breaking their skins and the must is then poured into fermenters where it is partially fermented and transferred to new French oak barrels for maturation. Unlike white wines, red wines are made by placing the broken skins of the grapes directly into the fermenters, allowing the skins to come into contact with the juice to extract the right amount of pigments, tannins and flavours. After fermentation, all red wines are matured in new French oak barrels, allowing oxygen to penetrate through the grain and soften the tannins, giving the wine a smooth texture and complex aromas. Currently, all of Château Boisrot's white wines are made from Chardonnay, a fresh and fruity wine that has been described as the 'star of white wines' in Burgundy. The red wines are all made from Pinot Noir, a rich and powerful wine that has received a great deal of praise from wine critics and wine reviewers.
