Domaine de la Vougeraie Batard-Montrachet Grand Cru 2019

93 Points Vinous

The 2019 Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru has a very intense, focused bouquet displaying just a touch of licorice behind the malic facade. The palate is well balanced with a sensual opening and good depth, but it misses just a little tension and acidic spine on the finish, especially when juxtaposed against the Charlemagne. Hopefully it will improve during the remainder of its barrel maturation. Since debuting in 1999, Domaine de la Vougeraie has accreted one of the impressive array of vineyard holdings in Burgundy, a raft of Premier and Grand Crus spanning 39 appellations that would leave many a winemaker envious. As usual, Sylvie Poillot guided me through the 2019s. “The flowering was great,” Poillot told me. “There was no rain, just a problem in Chassagne where we had some frost, like in 2016, also in a small part of Savigny-lès-Beaune. We started the harvest on 9 September with the young vines in Volnay and then Nuits Saint-Georges and Chardonnay began three days after. There were 13 days of picking across the 48 hectares of vines. We used 110 pickers [a number increased when they understood that they would have to expedite the harvest] including the 14 people at the winery. The yields were lower with respect to Pinot Noir and greater for Chardonnay, less in Côte de Beaune than in the Côte de Nuits