The 2014 Vosne-Romanee 1er Cru les Beaux Monts has a very attractive bouquet, pure and sensual with black cherries, boysenberry and a touch of blueberry. Understated but quite compelling. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin, silky in texture, beautifully balanced with very well judged acidity with a touch of salinity towards the finish. This is a very well crafted Beaumonts that deserves several years in bottle.

Domaine Dujac is one of the most visible and well-known domaines in the world. By that I mean that Dujac has never born the parochialism of Burgundy -- willing to travel to overseas markets, engage with consumers whether that is face-to-face at tastings or in recent years via social media. (In this respect, Burgundy is still far behind Bordeaux, though to be fair it’s not like Burgundy domaines can host a marketing department of full-time social media managers like they do there.) Certainly traveling around the New World, every winemaker is aware of Dujac and has experience of their wines. Fortunately, Domaine Dujac has a tendency to create splendid wines and not in a predictable way. They don’t play it safe year after year and seem always open to ideas, whether that is in their use of whole bunch fruit (a central and abiding tenet), the use of concrete eg(more...)

Outstanding A strikingly spicy array of very fresh dark berry fruit, violet, lavender and anise is also trimmed in just enough wood to notice. There is more volume and mid-palate concentration to the caressing and mouth coating flavors that display ample minerality on the balanced, deep and impressively long finale. This isn't quite as intense as the Combottes but it is more concentrate.

Bright red-ruby. Very pure aromas of raspberry, red licorice and smoky minerals, plus a hint of animal fur. Plush, rich and fine-grained, offering a silky, spherical texture to its expressive flavors of raspberry, smoke, minerals, game and mocha. Finishes with broad, building tannins and terrific persistence. (ST)