2014 Alain Hudelot-Noellat Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Beaumonts (1500ml)

91-93 points Wine Advocate

The 2014 Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru les Beaux Monts has a tightly knit blackberry and briary nose, backward and sultry at the moment. The palate is well defined with fine tannin, chalky in texture with good tension and a palpable sense of energy and mineralité on the finish. This is a great Les Beaux Monts in the making, reflective of its terroir and very precise...but the Suchots might be even better!

Dear reader: Have you ever driven down the A12? It is a stretch of motorway between London and Suffolk and it's one of the most boring you can encounter. But every January I drive up the A12 on route to Southwold for our annual Bordeaux blind tasting. And maybe because of the ennui, I got into a "disagreement" with my driver, an eminent and reliable palate, who dared opine that the wines of Hudelot-Noëllat are not much kop. "Overrated" was the term he used. Of course, I was having none of it and defended the domaine's wines as being exemplary. We agreed to disagree, though I only accepted the detente knowing that I could wax lyrical about Charles van Canneyt in print.

Sporting a dashing new beard, Charles took me around the barrels. He picked on September 15 and some of the malolactics were so tardy that a few barrels were not finished (indeed, a couple were too reduced for me to taste). Charles has overseen some impressive wines in 2014, not least a spellbinding Richebourg that will rank as one of the best wines of the vintage. Perhaps it was just more open for business than the Romanée-Saint-Vivant, but it certainly put it in its place. I felt that at the bottom end, some of the village crus could benefit from a little more matière, but the mid-range is full of wines worthy of your attention, in particular a wonderful Vosne-Romanée Malconsorts. NM (12/2015)