2014 Vosne-Romanée Les Suchots 1er Cru

According to veteran winemaker Pascal Marchand, “phenolic sweetness was slightly lower across the board on the Côte de Nuits than on the Côte de Beaune” in 2014 and that’s why he cut back on his use of whole clusters. He has also reduced the percentage of new oak for his négociant bottlings in recent years, explaining that “I’m relying more on the vineyards than in my earlier days. ” Although some of his colleagues on the Côte de Nuits believe that the villages of Chambolle-Musigny and Vosne-Romanée did best in 2014, due to the crop-reducing effects of a bit of hail and slightly lower rainfall totals during the summer than villages farther to the north, Marchand favors Gevrey-Chambertin for its more pliant texture and believes that some wines from Vosne-Romanée are “a little tough. ” And he has more experience these days with Gevrey than ever before, as he’s been intimately involved in recent years with the Domaine Maume vineyards and winemaking, not to mention the wines made by his négociant firm. Most of the wines I tasted in November were slated to be racked in December, but others had been racked in the weeks before my visit.