From: Burgundy, France
Varietal: Pinot Noir
Critical Acclaim and Taste:
93-95 points Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
"The 2018 Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Les Vaucrains is powerful and muscular, opening in the glass with aromas of cassis, ripe wild blueberries, dark chocolate, rose petals, rich soil tones and smoked meats. Full-bodied, rich and muscular, it's deep and concentrated, with a serious chassis of ripe, powdery tannins, lively acids and a long, resonant finish. As usual, this is the most powerful wine in the Chevillon cellar. (WK)" (2/2020)
92-94 points Vinous
"The 2018 Nuits Saint-Georges Les Vaucrains 1er Cru matches Chevillon’s Les Saint-Georges pound for pound in terms of intensity and precision, offering brambly black fruit, crushed rock, tangerine and raspberry preserve scents that blossom with aeration. The medium-bodied palate features very supple tannins and pitch-perfect acidity, although perhaps at the moment the Les Saint-Georges demonstrates more complexity and terroir expression toward the finish. The Vaucrains is more introspective and remains a little aloof on the finish (at least for now). One for the cellar. (NM)" (1/2020)
93 points John Gilman
"The vineyard of Vaucrains produces powerful wines in virtually every vintage- at least when the wine is young- and this is amplified in the vintage of 2018. This will be a fine bottle in due course, but patience will be very much required, as this will need a good twenty years to start to stir. The bouquet offers up superb purity and nascent complexity, wafting from the glass in a mix of red and black cherries, bonfire, gamebird, a touch of nutskin, a very good base of soil tones, bitter chocolate and a touch of vanillin oak. On the palate the wine is deep, powerful and broad-shouldered, with a rock solid core, excellent soil signature and a very powerful, massively tannic and very, very long finish. I have never tasted a young vintage of Vaucrains that was this tannic, but the tannins are buried into the body of the wine and I really feel there is enough depth of fruit here to age alongside of the tannins and eventually produce a fine bottle. 93+ " (12/2019)
89-92 points Allen Meadows - Burghound
"This is at once very fresh and very ripe with its liqueur-like aromas of plum, dark currant and plenty of gamy nuances. This a huge wine with incredible density and power where the abundant dry extract coats the palate and, like the Les St. Georges, partially buffers the extremely firm tannic spine shaping the quite chewy, short and mildly warm bitter pit fruit-inflected finale. I very much like the impressive complexity but the balance, particularly on the finish, isn't at its usual level. This may well age out successfully but make no mistake, it will require the better part of 20 years before we will know for sure. " (1/2020)
