94 John Gilman - View from the Cellar

"Perhaps nothing underscores Jacques Lardière’s point about the very high quality of the 2011 Côte de Beaune red wines than the superb caliber of the 2011 Clos des Ursules. Last year, I felt that the Clos des Ursules from 2010 was probably the greatest young vintage of this wine I had ever tasted, and yet, the 2011 may well be every bit as good! The bouquet on the 2011 is reserved and very classy, delivering a superb blend of red and black cherries, raw cocoa, fresh herb tones, woodsmoke, gloriously complex and polished soil tones and a lovely base of cedary wood. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and very pure on the attack, with a lovely sense of reserve, a rock solid core, stunning precision, fine-grained tannins and brilliant length and grip on the seamless finish. This is more closed today than the Beaune “Grèves”, but my gut instinct tells me that it is potentially both more complex and longer on the backend. A beautiful, beautiful wine in the making and I would love to have the opportunity twenty years down the road to compare the 2010 and 2011 Clos des Ursules side by side! 2022-2070+."