2018 Louis Jadot Vosne Romanee 1er Cru Les Chaumes

(89-91 Points) The 2018 Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Chaumes (Maison Louis Jadot) bursts with aromas of spices plums, orange rind, woodsmoke and sweet soil tones. On the palate, it's medium to full-bodied, with a more muscular, chewier and overtly structural profile than the preceding Beaux Monts.

"We were never worried about the red wines in 2018," explained Jadot's Frédéric Barnier, "but we worked hard with the white wines—blocking a lot of malolactic—to make them fresh and lively. Of course," he added, "the high yields helped retain freshness by retarding ripening." Anyone who has tasted with Barnier knows that he tends to come to the point, and those succinct comments are in fact a great summation of Jadot's 2018 vintage: beautifully balanced reds and whites that are impressively vibrant and precise. This was by some margin the largest range of wines I tasted from any producer in the 2018 vintage: that it was also one of the most consistent speaks volumes about the attention to detail and technical expertise of Barnier and his team. "Operating on a large scale, we know how important it is to ensure wines go dry and to avoid stuck fermentations; and we avoid cross-contamination and taste the wines regularly during élevage, so we don't have issues with brettanomyces," explained Barnier. And evidently, what Jadot's team know well, some smaller domaines have had to learn the hard way with the 2018 vintage. As the accompanying notes indicate, Jadot's 2018 portfolio offers rich pickings, and there are plenty of cuvées here that merit consideration. This important firm is a credit to contemporary Burgundy.  Wine Advocate