2014 Nuits St Georges Les Cailles

45% new oak. Healthy, deep ruby. Cleaner nose than the BP&F Côte de Beaune wines. Attractively fruity nose with just a hint of toast. Refined tannins and good, ripe, slightly soft fruit. This somehow tastes rather worked instead of a pure expression of the vineyard. (JR)

(Bouchard owns one hectare in this premier cru; this and the Porrets Saint-Georges were aged in 40% new oak but all of these wines were racked out of new oak in August): Bright, dark red. Ripe aromas of currant, chocolatey oak, clove and graphite. Sweet and velvety on entry, then rather penetrating in the middle, with the strong acidity in need of more time to integrate. Not a fat or opulent style but displays excellent energy, cut and lift. Finishes with firm tannic spine and a vibrant stony character.

Here too there is plenty of wood framing the pure and airy black cherry, plum and violet-scented nose. There is a lovely sense of underlying tension to the vibrant, delicious and focused middle weight flavors that exude a fine minerality before culminating in a balanced, persistent and beautifully complex if mildly austere finish. Like the Gevrey this is not super dense but it does offer a highly attractive combination of punch and finesse that also has the underlying structure to amply reward a decade plus of cellaring. Apr 2015, www.burghound.com, Drink: 2024