2018 Emmanuel Rouget, Vosne Romanee 750ml

WA90-92

The 2018 Vosne-Romanée Village is showing beautifully, wafting from the glass with aromas of raspberries, exotic spices, orange rind and smoked duck, deftly framed by the subtle imprint of some 30% new oak. On the palate, the wine is medium to full-bodied, textural, and enveloping, with a ripe but succulent core of fruit, supple tannins and a fragrant finish. It's a blend derived from lieux-dits Aux Ravioles, Aux Ormes, Les Jacquines, Aux Réas, Vigneux and Barraux. The 2018 vintage set a new but short-lived record at Domaine Emmanuel Rouget, in that the Cros Parantoux—a later-ripening site—checked in at fully 14.4% alcohol, a figure soon surpassed, only a year later, by the even headier 2019 vintage. Rouget picked quite late this year, waiting for full phenolic maturity, and the wines have turned out well: richer and more textural than the 2017s but hiding their alcohol. No doubt, long élevage in the family's cool, humid cellars in Flagey-Echézeaux helps with integration, too. There's just as much fruit as in 2017 but more carnal nuance, and parallels with the 1990 vintage might not be far-fetched, even if the 2018 weather was somewhat more extreme. I wrote last that the house style at this address is fleshy, even dramatic, and that for the better part of the last decade, it has arguably been more consistently realized than in any other era of the domaine's history, and this successful 2018 portfolio gives me no grounds to modify that favorable pronouncement.