Wine Advisor
Meo Camuzet, Vosne Romanee 1er Cru Les Chaumes 2019
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2019 Vosne-Romanée Les Chaumes 1er Cru is very concentrated and powerful on the nose of crushed-violet- and iodine-infused ripe black cherries and crème de cassis. A little over the top, maybe? The palate is very ripe, with layers of sweet cassis fruit, lush and precocious at the expense of terroir expression. A thoroughly pleasurable Les Chaumes, for sure, but not as intellectual as some of Méo-Camuzet’s other cuvées.
Reviewed by: William Kelley
Aromas of cherries, dark chocolate, sweet soil tones and potpourri preface Méo's 2019 Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Chaumes, a medium to full-bodied, layered and elegantly muscular wine with a generous core of fruit framed by rich and powdery tannins. This is quite a virile, powerful Chaumes this year, and it will reward bottle age.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2019 Vosne-Romanée Les Chaumes 1er Cru is very concentrated and powerful on the nose of crushed-violet- and iodine-infused ripe black cherries and crème de cassis. A little over the top, maybe? The palate is very ripe, with layers of sweet cassis fruit, lush and precocious at the expense of terroir expression. A thoroughly pleasurable Les Chaumes, for sure, but not as intellectual as some of Méo-Camuzet’s other cuvées.
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.
