90+ There are only three barrels this year of Raphet's 2008 Clos Vougeot Vieilles Vignes, a bottling from his oldest vines and best locations in this sprawling, heterogeneous appellation. This doesn't only have a...
90+ There are only three barrels this year of Raphet's 2008 Clos Vougeot Vieilles Vignes, a bottling from his oldest vines and best locations in this sprawling, heterogeneous appellation. This doesn't only have a healthier and deeper color than the wines that preceded it in Raphet's 2008 collection, it also displays additional complexity. Soy, pork stock, lightly-cooked black raspberry, blond tobacco, Latakia tobacco, cardamom, and ginger mingle on the nose and on a juicy, savory, saliva-inducing palate. There is a lovely sense of richness and fine-grained tanninity as well as impressive grip, even if it's not especially seductive, let alone finesseful. I suspect that it will be worth following for 6-8 years. Raphet opines that this has shut down since bottling, whereas he indicates surprise that the other wines in his collection - even just a little over a month after they were bottled - taste to him very close to the way they showed from barrel. - David Schildknecht