Moderately saturated medium red. Tight, pure nose offers restrained scents of cherry, flowers and peppery spices. Then sweet but taut in the mouth; impressively concentrated owing to the very low yield here but quite closed and hard to taste today. Perfumed and powerful wine but ungiving, and showing less sweetness than the Vaucrains. I'd hold this for five years.

Another vividly red-fruited as well as red meaty and tight, bright, yet silken-textured essay, the Gouges 2008 Nuits-St.-Georges Les St.-Georges incorporates piquant sage, black pepper, toasted nuts, salt, and fruit pits in its long, lip-smacking finish. There are low-toned dimensions of roasted red meats and peat as well as an emerging, decadent inner-mouth aura of floral perfume that take one beyond the complexities of the corresponding Vaucrains, and at the same time – notwithstanding bright fresh fruit vivacity – lend a sense of substantiality note found in any of the other Gouges 2008s. I would expect this to perform well for 15 or more years. Gregory Gouges admits that he and his family, in 2008, picked a tough year for completing their conversion to organic viticulture, but he notes that the winds of late September rather radically desiccated most botrytized or otherwise imperfect berries and that this played directly into the forte of vibratory sorting tables on which such berries were simply shaken-away. Yields here were only in the 30-35 hectoliter per hectare range. Harvest began already September 30 and fruit came in between 12-12.5% potential alcohol. Chaptalization was minimal, and then only on a few lots in an effort to prolong fermentation. Malos were late and long, but nevertheless finished by summer’s end; and bottling was early by estate norms, with one exception completed between December and February. New facilities enable the Gouges to achieve better temperature-control during fermentations and to avoid pumping. Importer: Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL; tel. (205) 980-8802

Outstanding. A more elegant but cool and reserved nose of exceptionally pure red berry and plum aromas also possesses notes of earth and underbrush that transfer seamlessly over to the rich, full and focused medium weight plus flavors that are actually quite supple and round but where this really distinguishes itself from the Vaucrains is the seriously impressive depth on the moderately austere and mildly herbal but hugely long finish. Like the Vaucrains, this will need plenty of time. Drink: 2018+
-Burghound.com, Issue 41. Tasted: Jan 01, 2011

The 2011 Nuits Saint-Georges Les Saint-Georges 1er Cru has a potent leafy bouquet, an incongruous "old sock" malodorous tincture that rather puts me off! Fortunately that dissipates with time, developing preferable tobacco and sous-bois notes. I would just like more fruit. The palate has supple tannin on the entry. There is more flesh than the aromatics suggest, a fine bead of acidity but it just tapers towards the finish. Not bad, but I would liked more substance considering the vineyard in question. Tasted at the Gouges retrospective at La Cabotte.

Bright limpid red. Complex nose that is still rather hidden and introvert. Lots of fresh fruit washes over the palate. Enormous energy and impressive breadth of ripeness. For the moment it's a little too raw for comfort but should certainly get there in the end. (JR)