2014 Bienvenues Bâtard Montrachet Grand Cru La Vougeraie

Bright pale lemon, perhaps a hint of rubbery reduction, makes it a little difficult to taste. But there is plenty of wine underneath and the persistence is good. Quite a lot of oak. It may be that this wine really needs a lot more time to be understood.

Another parcel that was acquired by La Vougeraie from Vincent Girardin, this makes a good contrast with the more exotic Bâtard-Montrachet. Chalky, mineral and refreshing, with focused acidity, tangy grapefruit and citrus flavours and stylish, aromatic oak. 2017-30

An expressive and highly complex nose of honeysuckle, green apple, pear and citrus notes introduces borderline painfully intense, pure and impressively powerful medium-bodied flavors that possess a caressing mid-palate mouth feel while delivering excellent persistence on the balanced finale. Lovely stuff and fashioned in an understated style.

The 2014 Bienvenue-Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru, another new addition to the portfolio courtesy of Vincent Girardin, has that struck match note on the nose, perhaps less obvious though than the Bâtard-Montrachet and yet still discernible. The palate is crisp and fresh on the entry with lemon peel and orange rind, lifting nicely towards the midpalate but just tapering a little towards the pretty and quite understated finish.

Tasted blind at the annual Burgfest tasting, Vougeraie's 2014 Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru is also showing some reduction on the nose although beneath that lurks a lot of fruit. The palate is well balanced with a spicy, quite saline entry. There is good presence and body here, and yet the finish does not convey the precision nor the mineralité that I found out of barrel. Let's hope for improvement in bottle.