2012 Domaine des Lambrays Clos des Lambrays
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Tasting notes
Moderately saturated medium red. Wild, very ripe aromas of black raspberry, blueberry, mocha, cola, leather and game are surprisingly explosive for the vintage. Impressively rich and dense, offering flavors of pungent black fruits, loam and peppery spices, plus a whiff of cinders. A real essence of Morey-Saint-Denis with its combination of dark fruits and soil tones. Impressively plush and horizontal on the palate but with the pepper and spice notes providing superb mid-palate lift. Finishes very long, with substantial dusty tannins that avoid dryness. Robust more than elegant, this wine tastes like it just came out of the barrel. Indeed, it quickly went back into a shell in the glass, suggesting that it will need a minimum of another five to seven years of patience. I suspect it will eventually merit an even higher rating. (13.7% alcohol; 3.6 pH; 3.9 grams per liter total acidity)
Critic scores
Allen Meadows, Burghound
Neal Martin
More reviews and scores
The 2012 Clos des Lambrays Grand Cru is superb, rivaled only by the 2010 and 2015 among recent vintages of this near-monopole, unfurling in the glass with notions of cassis, currant leaf, rich soil, smoked duck, incense and richly savory bass notes. On the palate, it's full-bodied, satiny and multidimensional, with a lovely line of tangy acidity, considerable depth at the core and a long, sapid finish. After shutting down for a few years, the wine is already beginning to open up and realize the promise it showed from barrel.
(100% vendange entier ; the village fruit was destemmed in 2012): Superripe aromas of red fruits, peony, mocha and balsamic spices. Plush, full and seamless, offering a pliant texture and terrific depth to the flavors of red fruits, dried spices, coffee and flowers. A tad warm on the back end but the dusty tannins melt into the wine's fruit. Less minerally than usual for this grand cru but there's no denying its richness and depth. This will need time to burn off some of its baby fat.
About the producer
Domaine des Lambrays is one of Morey-Saint-Denis’s most famous estates, its history closely tied to the Grand Cru from which it takes its name – Clos des Lambrays.