We’re a two-generation business, so we have been particularly interested to watch the generations change at our French producers over the years. France pushes its seniors into retirement about five years earlier than does the US, but otherwise it’s much as it is here – smoother or bumpier depending on history and personalities. Michel Gros took the reins at his family’s famous domaine as a very young man after his father Jean suffered a stroke, so he had 45 years to acquire vines and refine his techniques.
The transition to his son Pierre has been smooth, and because Michel is always happiest when he is in the vines, he has not disappeared from the scene. But it’s Pierre steering the ship now, and he’s had too much success to chalk up to beginner’s luck. In easy vintages and hard ones, Pierre has produced stellar wines, maintaining and even elevating his family domaine’s sterling reputation.
The Gros family has lived in Vosne-Romanée for centuries, and so their plots in the town hold special significance. There’s the flagship Vosne premier cru “Clos des Réas” of course, but their other holdings also carry the domaine’s signature polish and grace. Over the years both Michel and his father Jean added parcels at the Vosne village level, and today the Domaine’s Vosne-Romanée offers an excellent example of the village’s signature aromatic profile of spice and violets.
The subsoils range from hard limestone to salmon colored marl like the marl that underlies the family’s 1er cru monopole Clos des Réas. Their combined effect is to produce a soft and elegant wine that suits the family’s 100% destemmed style like a glove. Their 2022 village-level Vosne is a masterpiece – sleek, detailed and ethereal but with excellent density and tremendous length. Burghound found notes of “plum, violet, pomegranate, sandalwood, and Asian-style tea” in the nose of the 2022. He also praised its “subtle minerality” and its “chalky, lingering and well-balanced finale,” concluding: “Lovely.”
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Gros Vosne-Romanée 2022
bottle price: $129
