Tasted blind at the Burgundy 2011 horizontal tasting in Beaune. The Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Malconsorts 2011 has a fragrant and complex, mineral-rich bouquet that is extremely well focused, yet one can tell that it is holding something back for the patient. The palate is medium-bodied with crisp chalky tannins, slightly brittle in the mouth with fine tension on the pepper-tinged, reserved and flirting-with-austere finish. However, there is impressive substance here.

(this one finished its malo late, in June): Good deep red. Ripe raspberry, stony minerality and a hint of chocolate on the nose, complicated by a balsamic quality. Fat and full but quite dry and youthfully clenched; very different in style from the other Vosne-Romanee premier crus owing to the late malo. Strong material here but currently quite tannic and backward. Hard to judge in its current phase. (Incidentally, Potel had not made the final blend of the Vosne-Romanee Suchots as of my November visit.)