Description
90-92 Points Allen Meadows
A fresh, cool and agreeably spicy nose displays notes of red and blue pinot fruit, plum, exotic tea and floral elements. The sleek, delicious and beautifully textured middle weight flavors possess a succulent and round mouthfeel, all wrapped in a lingering finish that flashes a touch of warmth. This is really quite pretty and a wine that should both drink well on the early side but offer a decade plus of development potential.
93-95 Points Jasper Morris
45 Year old vines are giving consistent results. Dense powerful purple. Very complete all enveloping rich purple fruit on the nose. The alcohol is not too prominent. Very succulent up front, with ripe deep red cherries, and a nice little tingle of acidity. The vines and grapes have been well nourished by the clay soil.
92-94 Points Wine Advocate
Aromas of cherries, dark chocolate, sweet soil tones and potpourri preface Méo’s 2019 Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Chaumes, a medium to full-bodied, layered and elegantly muscular wine with a generous core of fruit framed by rich and powdery tannins. This is quite a virile, powerful Chaumes this year, and it will reward bottle age. Jean-Nicolas Méo began picking on September 13, observing that “everything was ripe at once this year,” and that alcohol levels—for the most part, around 14%—were a little higher than he would have wished for. Yet the wines in the glass are hard to fault: Méo excelled in 2018, and his 2019s are even more structurally refined and vibrant. As I’ve written before, Méo’s wines see quite a long élevage, and they can often be a little structural and introverted in the fall following the vintage, but these 2019s, just like the 2018s at the same stage last year, were remarkably open for inspection. Displaying superb concentration and mid-palate amplitude without any particular perception of heaviness, I found much to admire; and, in summation, this is a very fine portfolio that, when taken as a set, appears to match or surpass what was achieved here in 2018.
