Nuits Saint Georges Les Saint Georges, Domaine Henri Gouges 2008

A more elegant but cool and reserved nose of exceptionally pure red berry and plum aromas also possesses notes of earth and underbrush that transfer seamlessly over to the rich, full and focused medium weight plus flavors that are actually quite supple and round but where this really distinguishes itself from the Vaucrains is the seriously impressive depth on the moderately austere and mildly herbal but hugely long finish. Like the Vaucrains, this will need plenty of time.

Another vividly red-fruited as well as red meaty and tight, bright, yet silken-textured essay, the Gouges 2008 Nuits-St.-Georges Les St.-Georges incorporates piquant sage, black pepper, toasted nuts, salt, and fruit pits in its long, lip-smacking finish. There are low-toned dimensions of roasted red meats and peat as well as an emerging, decadent inner-mouth aura of floral perfume that take one beyond the complexities of the corresponding Vaucrains, and at the same time – notwithstanding bright fresh fruit vivacity – lend a sense of substantiality note found in any of the other Gouges 2008s. I would expect this to perform well for 15 or more years.

Gregory Gouges admits that he and his family, in 2008, picked a tough year for completing their conversion to organic viticulture, but he notes that the winds of late September rather radically desiccated most botrytized or otherwise imperfect berries and that this played directly into the forte of vibratory sorting tables on which such berries were simply shaken-away. Yields here were only in the 30-35 hectoliter per hectare range. Harvest began already September 30 and fruit came in between 12-12.5% potential alcohol. Chaptalization was minimal, and then only on a few lots in an effort to prolong fermentation. Malos were late and long, but nevertheless finished by summer’s end; and bottling was early by estate norms, with one exception completed between December and February. New facilities enable the Gouges to achieve better temperature-control during fermentations and to avoid pumping.

The 2008 Les St. Georges was really singing in November, and this wine will be the start of a superb lineup of wines from Domaine Gouges in this vintage. The bouquet is deep and brilliantly complex, as it offers up scents of red and black cherries, dark berries, nutskins, woodsmoke and a very, very complex base of minerally soil tones. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and very transparent, with a rock solid core of fruit, beautifully-integrated tannins, great focus and a very long, soil-driven and tangy finish. A great wine. (Drink between 2018-2060)