2010 Nuits St Georges Les Boudots (Domaine Gagey)

Bright medium red. Restrained, pure aromas of red cherry, redcurrant, cinnamon, mint, herbs and flowers. Juicy and sharply delineated, with lovely floral delicacy to the perfumed red berry and spice flavors. Finishes perfumed, vibrant and very long, but still quite tight, with fine-grained dusty tannins. This will need at least several years to open and expand, but it offers superb potential.

Medium red. Complex nose melds red fruits, crushed stone, flint, black tea, violet and menthol. Sweet, creamy and fine-grained, with primary, intense flavors of dark berries and chocolate. The long, rising finish features ripe, building tannins. I like this!

The 2010 Nuits Saint Georges Boudots is a bit more refined and less obvious than the villages, but it, too, is not shy on richness or concentration. Dark red cherries, flowers, spices and licorice are some of the many notes that flow from this intense wine. The Boudots captures a highly attractive balance of richness from the year and a slightly more feminine expression of red fruit. Floral nuances and high-toned minty notes linger on the finish. Anticipated maturity: 2015-2025. I tasted an amazing range of 2010 reds at Jadot with long-term winemaker Jacques Lardiere and his successor Frederic Barnier. In order to make this large section of the report easier to read, I have broken up the wines into the Cote de Beaune and Cote de Nuits. Lardiere and Barnier told me they were quite worried about the prospects for the harvest upon their return from summer vacations in August, but the year was saved by a perfect September. Yields are down 25-50% because of the frost and cold weather earlier in the year, but overall quality is very high. Lardiere and Barnier also noted that early on it appeared that there would be a wide gap in quality between the Cote de Beaune and the Cote de Nuits, but over time that gap narrowed to some extent. Still, there is little question the vintage was more challenging in the Cote de Beaune because of a rainier summer and overall higher precipitation throughout the year. Importer: Kobrand Corp., Purchase, NY; tel. (914) 253-7756