2023 Robert Chevillon Nuits-Saint-Georges les Vaucrains 1er (Pre-arrival)

Jasper Morris (94-97) – “An even mid purple. The high-class nose suggests the power to come as well as the rock below. Everything is immaculately in place. Excellent tension, with the fruit staying more on the red side of the divide. Very pure, balanced and very long.”

John Gilman 95 – “The inherent elegance of the very finest red wines of the 2023 vintage is very much on display in Bertrand Chevillon’s young Vaucrains this year. The wine delivers a beautiful nose of black cherries, black plums, dark berries, venison, espresso, a great base of soil, a touch of nutskin, vanillin oak and a lovely topnote of currant leaf. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and properly reserved out of the blocks (as young Vaucrains always will be), with a bottomless core of sappy fruit, fine soil inflection and grip, ripe tannins and a long, classy, well balanced and chewy finish. Great juice.”

Burghound Sweet Spot Outstanding – “There is just enough wood to notice suffusing the overtly sauvage-inflected dark berry and earth-scented nose. The vibrant and well-detailed middle weight flavors that also possess only average concentration though there is again excellent balance and length as well as more complexity. This lovely effort is the class of the Chevillon range in 2023.”

William Kelley/Wine Advocate (93-95) – “The 2023 Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Les Vaucrains is especially good this year. Unwinding in the glass with aromas of dark berry preserves, cassis, spices, vine smoke and dark chocolate, it’s full-bodied, deep and layered, with rich tannins, ripe acids and a long, perfumed finish. The inherent charm of the vintage has tempered this site’s tendency to imposing structure to deliver an unusually open young Vaucrains. Domaine Robert Chevillon is one of the Côte d’Or’s stalwart, producing hearty, characterful wines that stand the test of time. Old vines, cultivated soils, moderate yields and long macerations at comparatively high temperatures with entirely destemmed grapes are the order of the day at this address, with the Nuits-Saint-Georges Vieilles Vignes seeing some 20% new oak and the premiers crus 30%. Nuits’s Tonnellerie Sirugue is the dominant supplier of barrels. The 2023 vintage has turned out nicely at this address, delivering wines somewhat reminiscent of a riper version of the 2017s, and with a suppleness that somewhat tempers the habitually more structured cuvées in the cellar, which this year have performed especially well.”