Tasting Notes
Vinous 95
The 2011 La Tache Grand Cru is consistent with my previous notes from 2014. It retains a complete and harmonious bouquet with brambly red fruit and crushed stone, plenty of sous-bois character – perhaps more here than in other recent vintages. The palate is medium-bodied, pure and refined. Whilst not as deep or as complex as say, the 2012 or 2014, it feels silky smooth and as if it has put on a little more weight in recent months. One to watch. Tasted at a private dinner in Burgundy.
Anticipated maturity: 2020-2050
Burghound 95-97
This is more restrained than usual and it requires aggressive swirling to coax the pure and spicy essence of red berry fruit aromas to emerge from the glass. There is a similar reserve to the distinctly focused and linear flavors that enjoy a seemingly unlimited reserve of dry extract that renders the fine-grained and silky tannins almost invisible at present though I suspect that they will become much more apparent once the baby fat melts away. There is superb complexity and fantastic length and this mineral-driven effort should be capable of drinking well after only 12 years or so of bottle age but require a solid 20 before it’s completely mature.
Robert Parker 95
The La Tache 2011, picked on 5 and 6 September at 27.49hl/ha, has a wonderful bouquet that is quintessential La Tache: very complete and harmonious, beautifully delineated, succinct at first then with aeration, blossoming with brambly red berries, apple blossom, minerals and a touch of sous-bois. The palate is medium-bodied with immense purity and delicacy on the entry. This La Tache is extremely focused, velvety smooth in the mouth and although not as complex as the 2010, it has a beguiling femininity that will seduce at ten paces. It is extremely long in the mouth but politely does not outstay its welcome. Divine. 1,514 cases produced.
Anticipated maturity: 2017-2040