La Grande Rue Grand Cru Monopole Pinot Noir

Tasted blind. Reddish scarlet center with reddish tawny rims. Spicy fruit nose. Dark cherries, rhubarb, Asian spice, dark soil and gravel. Comes across as masculine and powerful. The silky nose is followed by a young fruit and chewy mouth experience. Lots of dirt and cherries. We debate which region it’s from. Gevrey? MSD? Someone says it’s Vosne but I think it’s 95 Ponsot Griotte. This wine needs more time to soften its edges.

The 6th and final of the Vosne Romanee Grand Crus. Tasted blind. Red fruited without the intensity on nose and palate of the others in this final group. In past tastings La Grande Rue has been a standout and good value in relative terms but this year it lacked the depth class and intensity of the others in the group. To summarise the Vosne Romanee GC group the consensus of the group was #1 to the DRC RC, Equal 2nd to La Tache and the Thibault Richebourg, 4th to the Hudelot RSV, 5th to La Romanee ( a tough school when a wine as good as this is placed 5th!) and 6th to La Grande Rue. Congratulations to Prince Wine Store for putting this wonderful tasting on every year and being able to source these increasingly rare bottles. Already looking forward to the next one.

Very young and sappy. Lovely bright, fresh fruit. Clarity and focus.

Cured meat, licorice, blueberry, sour cherry, earth, and dusty herbs. Medium minus acidity and tannins. Less refined than else.

Wine No. 5 in the Vosne Romanee lineup. My notes - Powerful again without the finesse of DRC. Fine savoury Tannins without the intensity of the others in the group. My least pointed in the group. This Cuvée usually shows well at these tastings but underperforming in this company.

Clear and proud fruit. Blue and red. Slightly speed cherry flavors and a little clipped and dusty on the finish.

Lovely fresh Pinot fruit with a whiff of grapefruit. Amazingly forward and succulent on the palate with gorgeous clear long fruit. Surprised how well this is showing.

The final Wine for the day No. 6 from Vosne Romanee blew me away and I gave it 99 points as did J H. I was convinced it was one of the DRCs. Being La Grande Rue it is over the narrow dirt road (Rue) from Romanee Conti and is a Monopole. My blind tasting notes - “Glorious restrained nose showing some whole bunch complexity. Beautiful Balanced Seamless. Fine and long. Unbelievable. Must be RC or La Tache “ A fair mistake given that La Grande Rue lies between Romanee Conti and La Tache. Interesting that Allen Meadows describes La Grande Rue if he only had 2 descriptors as Refinement and Generosity. Could not agree more.!
In summary another amazing tasting. Next years covering the 2015 vintage will be mind boggling!!! Cannot wait!

Amazing wine from small 1.6 HA property. Earth driven , melted red licorice, stewed mushrooms and velvety smooth tannins, acid lasts a long time. Finessed wine that I wish we had more of...

Amber edges. Soft red fruit with woody notes on the nose. Some herbal notes then plum, done tarry darker fruit. Nice balance