Dom. d’Eugenie
Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru
Vougeot
2016

The producer

The famed Domaine Rene Engel was purchased by Francois Pinault (owner of Chateau Latour) on the early death of Phillipe Engel in 2005. Typical of Pinault’s wine investments both vineyard and winemaking have been overhauled. The vineyards are handle meticulously down to picking fruit from individual newly replanted vines so they are not included in the top wines. Wine making has been moved to the renovated Clos Frantin facility and, with an extremely selective harvesting approach their level of quality has increased, and the quality of the so called “lesser” – village wines, improves. A win-win situation.

Rene Engel had a deserved reputation for fine Burgundy, Domaine Eugenie has taken it to another level altogether. Their Clos de Vougeot is from the Les Marais Hauts section in the upper part of the Clos, close to Grands Echezeaux and exhibits an intensity and finesse that usually sees it slightly edge out the Grands Echezeaux in most vintages. Both are outstanding examples of their appellation.

The wine

Domaine d’Eugenie’s 1.37 hectares of 60+ year old vines are located in the heart of Clos de Vougeot slightly towards the Flagey border. Fermentation with regular punch downs accentuates the tannins and ageing for up to 22 months in 80% new oak barrels rounds and balances the palate. A full-bodied and muscular, yet energetically chiselled and juicy wine, the Clos de Vougeot is often considered the superior expression from the Domaine.

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.