2014 Domaine Cecile Tremblay, Vosne-Romanee Premier Cru, Les Rouges Dessus 1x750ml

Robert Parker 90-92

The 2014 Vosne-Romanee Rouge du Dessus has a pretty, rose-petal tinged bouquet with small dark cherries, red plum and a touch of orange blossom. The palate is medium-bodied, smooth in the mouth with a vitamin-like purity. There is good body here for a village cru, but it is the harmony and texture that really makes this wine "sing". Before you ask…yes, I prefer this to the Vosne-Romanee Beaumonts at the moment. Cecile Tremblay has become one of the new wave of "cult" winemakers whose small productions are rapidly snapped up by devotees. Of course, a prerequisite of high quality wine is not the only factor that has made collectors "tremblay" at the knees at the mere thought of securing her Echezeaux or Chapelle-Chambertin. You need a charismatic winemaker too, and Cecile is charisma corporeal. She has a striking presence and an infectious personality. Plus she is always candid and witty during our tastings: our conversations meandering all over the place during a 90 minute tasting only curtailed by her three-year-old daughter’s arrival and a pressing lunch in Beaune. I quipped that Cecile was my 89th visit or thereabouts and demanded to know something revelatory about the vintage that I had not heard 88 times before. She duly obliged as we commenced our exchange about the drosophila suzukii… "It was a problem for three parcels where there was a wall or a forest that cut the flow of air," she began. "I did a treatment 15 days before the harvest with a clay powder [Litotam]. I asked myself what should I do? I would like to have perfect grapes to put into the vat and so I decided to pick the Morey-Saint-Denis three times: the first lot whole bunch, then one that was destemmed and then finally, those affected by the fruit fly. You know, the alcoholic fermentation was very similar between the three lots. But when it finished I found that there was a big difference with the flavors and the precision. The vat with the grapes affected by fruit fly was good…but nothing magic. So I was very pleased that I had split them up because a lot of friends didn’t cut them off. I am glad I did…" "So did you throw away the fruit in the "suzukii" vat?" I inquired. "No, I sold it to a negociant," she answered. I must confess that I was surprised, but then again, as Cecile had already mentioned, there was nothing inherently faulty about the vat…it simply did not reach the quality the she is willing to put her name upon. What Cecile does not want is obviously good enough for another. "We started the harvest on September 14 and finished on the September 21," she continued. "We used two sorting tables. I rented a little fridge to cool the grapes during picking because the temperature was 30 to 35 degrees in the afternoon and the alcoholic fermentation started so quickly. Some people hadn’t even started the harvest when the alcoholic fermentation finished." [Neal Martin, 28/09/2017]

Anticipated maturity: 2017-2027

Vinous 91-93

Bright red-ruby. Very pure, perfumed aromas and flavors of blackberry, boysenberry, minerals, violet and cocoa powder. Sappy and tightly wound, conveying a powerful impression of vinosity thanks to its pungent minerality. The pH here of 3. 45 is the lowest in the cellar in 2014. Indeed, this wine shows a distinctly cool quality in the context of the vintage, and finishes with excellent chewy length. Tremblay told me that the 2008 version of this wine was paired by a chef with a tuna dish during a trip to Tokyo and that the combination was perfect. [Stephen Tanzer, 01/01/2016]