1999 Vosne Romanee Les Suchots
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Tasting notes
Good medium red. Sexy, full-blown aromas of liqueur-like raspberry, graphite, brown spices, mocha, dried flowers and truffley underbrush are lifted by a fresh note of orange peel. Plush, sweet and spicy, conveying a slightly exotic quality but also surprisingly firm acidity and solid minerality in light of the large crop. The wine's complex red fruit, game, spice and soil notes are supported by a firm spine of acidity and tannins. This really fills the retronasals with cherry and raspberry fruit on the back end; it may yet expand further in bottle. Very different from the wines Charles Lachaux is making today: in '99 the fruit was destemmed entirely and aged in 100% new oak.
Critic scores
Average Score
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
Allen Meadows, Burghound
More reviews and scores
Only a hint of bricking and consistent with the appearance there is only a touch of secondary character to the spicy, floral and exceptionally fresh nose. There is first-rate complexity to the velvety, super-rich and highly seductive medium-bodied flavors that brim with dry extract on the balanced and strikingly long finish. This has just now arrived at its peak but I underscore that it should be capable of holding here for years to come. In a word, terrific.
The smoked bacon, violet, and blackberry-scented 1999 Vosne-Romanee Les Suchots has a medium to dark ruby color. It is medium-bodied, crammed with dense layers of blackberries, cherries, spices, and candied raspberries. This rich, concentrated, intense, chewy wine offers an admirably long, lush, fruit-filled finish. Drink it over the next decade. Importers: A Peter Vezan Selection, Paris fax #011-33-1-42-55-42-93, and also represented by Russell Herman, Berkeley Heights, NJ; tel. (908) 771-9082.