2020 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-saint-georges Premier Cru Les Chaignots

The 2020 Chaignots from the Gouges family is the ripest wine in the cellar in this vintage, as it comes in at an even fifteen percent alcohol, but it does not show this on either the nose or the palate. How it has been able to maintain such a fine sense of balance and freshness at this octane level is a mystery to me. The bouquet is excellent, offering up a blend of sappy dark berries, black cherries, dark soil tones, a touch of coffee grounds, bonfire, gamebird and vanillin oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and sappy, with fine focus and balance, ripe, seamless tannins and a long, complex and classy finish. Perhaps the only sign that this wine is riper than the other premier crus in the cellar this year is that it is more fruit-driven in personality than the other premier crus, but in all other respects, it carries its octane amazingly well and there is no signs of sur maturité or heat on the backend.