Wine Advisor
Meo Camuzet, Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru 2012
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Description
Meo Camuzet, Clos Vougeot, Grand Cru, Burgundy, France, Still, Red, 2010
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
The 2012 Clos de Vougeot comes across as intense and very tightly wound. The flavors are bright, precise and chiseled to the core. Saline notes underpin layers of red fruits, freshly cut flowers and crushed rocks. Readers will have to be patient here, but those who can wait will be rewarded with a striking, utterly impeccable Burgundy to savor for many, many years.
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
Medium red. Complex, multifaceted nose combines cherry liqueur, raspberry, rose petal and truffley underbrush. Ripe, complex and deep, showing lovely spicy lift to the flavors of redcurrant, menthol, truffle and dried flowers. Tightens up on the very long, spicy back end, with the sexy earth and dried flower notes persisting. This is already remarkably sexy juice but will reward cellaring.
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
Good bright red. Perfumed aromas of red cherry, licorice and crushed stone. Nicely ripe but youthfully closed today, with blackberry, licorice and menthol flavors supported by a firm spine of dusty tannins. This seriously structured wine will need at least five years of cellaring.
Reviewed by: William Kelley
The 2012 Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru from Méo-Camuzet offers up a classic bouquet of rich, plummy fruit mingling with incense, wood smoke and smoked duck—which has hardly evolved since it was bottled. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, rich and sapid, with a firm chassis of tannin and a succulent, almost saline finish. While the 2012 Les Chaumes seemed a little disjointed at the same tasting, the Clos de Vougeot is clearly very nicely balanced.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2012 Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru, which sees almost 100% new oak, has quite a sensual bouquet underneath that carapace of new oak that is embroidered nicely with the fruit. The palate is medium-bodied with succulent ripe but firm tannins that lend this Clos de Vougeot bewitching symmetry. Silky smooth in texture, it feels long and assertive on the finish, but never over-powering. Excellent. Domaine Meo-Camuzet boasts one of the most enviable portfolios in Vosne-Romanee, crowned by Richebourg Grand Cru and Cros Parantoux, the latter essentially grand cru in all but name thanks to the late Henri Jayer, who decided that vines might profit more from the land than a few veg. I have been following the wines for over a decade and visiting Jean-Nicolas Meo’s cellar just down the road from Bernard Gros. Together we tasted through both his negociant and domaine bottlings, partly from pre-prepared samples and others directly from barrel. He told me he had been surprised at the changes in pH post-malo-lactic fermentation, possibly due to a precipitation of potassium that had made the wines feel rounder. Certainly some of the cuvees did have a certain “sumptuousness” about them, but for the most part that tannins were present and correct, lending backbone to offset the occasionally intense fruit. Readers should note that I took a video of Jean-Nicolas discussing the vintage in his cellars, so please access this for further insight. Importer: Kermit Lynch, Berkeley, CA; tel. (510) 524-1524
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
Tasted blind at the annual "Burgfest" tasting in Beaune. The 2012 Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru from Domaine Méo-Camuzet has a noticeable oyster shell and brine-tinged bouquet that is well defined, gaining more and more cohesion as it opens. The palate is medium-bodied with supple ripe tannins, although the oak comes on too strong and the creamy finish denudes this Clos de Vougeot of typicité. It is a very accomplished wine that shows that hand of the winery at the moment, but if that recedes then it will merit a higher evaluation.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2012 Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru from Méo-Camuzet offers up a classic bouquet of rich, plummy fruit mingling with incense, wood smoke and smoked duck—which has hardly evolved since it was bottled. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, rich and sapid, with a firm chassis of tannin and a succulent, almost saline finish. While the 2012 Les Chaumes seemed a little disjointed at the same tasting, the Clos de Vougeot is clearly very nicely balanced.
About the Producer
Founded in the early 20th Century by Etie, Méo-Camuzet is one of the figureheads of Vosne-Romanée as well as an old family of the village. Back in 1920, founder Etienne Camuzet acquired 3 hectares of the house's flagship Clos Vougeot as well as the Château itself before donating it to the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin. After WWII, the estate came to the management of Jean Méo who had agreements with vintners managing the vineyards and making the wines, the most famous of which was Henri Jayer. In 1983, the estate started to bottle some of its fruits under its own label and the sharecropping agreements eventually came to an end in 1988 when Jean-Nicolas Méo took over the management of the 17.2-hectare property. The meticulous work in the vineyard involves bud pruning in spring, careful trellising to ensure an optimal leaf exposure to sunlight as well as aeration of the bunches and green harvest may be performed if necessary. After harvest bunches are de-stemmed before a 3-5 days cold maceration prior to fermentation. The wines are then matured in oak barrels for 15 to 18 months before bottling. The winemaking aims at preserving the fruit purity to craft smoothly grained, profound wines with complex aromatics and silky textures. In order to ensure the quality acquired in the vineyard and revealed in the cellar is bottled unspoilt, the wines are not filtered. Jean-Nicolas Méo is also involved in a négociant activity which sources and vinifies grapes from vineyards managed by the estate before bottling them under the "Frère & Soeur" label. The attention to detail in the vineyards and the winery is the same as for the estate and allows the family to produce a wider range of appellation in lesser-known Côte de Nuits villages such as Marsannay or Fixin offering a great entry point to the wines of the domaine. Since 2011, this superb portfolio now comprises the first ever Grand Cru white produced by Méo-Camuzet: a Corton-Charlemagne.
