Nuits St Georges Les Pruliers, Domaine Henri Gouges 2018

The 2018 Nuits Saint-Georges Les Pruliers 1er Cru has an elegant bouquet of pure dark cherries and light loamy aromas; there is an admirable sense of cohesion here. The palate is fine-boned with impressive focus, the predominantly red fruit lightly spiced (clove and sage), and an energetic and persistent finish. This is showing promise.

Here too there is enough wood to point out framing the very ripe and slightly jammy aromas of poached plum and cassis with background nuances of forest floor and pungent earth. There is impressive density and power to the sappy and exceptionally rich broad-shouldered flavors that terminate in a mocha and bitter cherry pit-inflected finish that is once again noticeably warm. Note: a 1.9 ha parcel with a mix of 80% 75+ year old vines and the remainder of 15 to 20 year old vines Drink: 2028+

The 2017 Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Les Pruliers wafts from the glass with an appealing bouquet of raspberries, red cherries, spiced plums, dried flowers and earthy forest floor. On the palate, it's medium to full-bodied, with a ripe core of fruit, tangy acids and a firm, stony finish. It's a suave, nicely integrated rendition of a climat that can sometimes be forbiddingly structural in its youth. Drink Date: 2020 - 2040