THE PEARL OF THE COTE;
The Great Wines of Vosne-Romanée
by Allen D. Meadows
Published by BurghoundBooks.com (www.BurghoundBooks.com)
347 pages
Vosne-Romanée not only possesses the greatest vineyards in the world, it houses some of Burgundy's greatest domaines, not just the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti and Leroy, but Grivot and Cathiard, Liger-Belair and Méo-Camuzet, Dr. Georges Mugneret-Gibourg and Arnoux-Lachaux, as well as three of the four branches of the excellent Gros family, and others. Here is a splendid book which covers the village and its vineyards, and inter aia the producers, in all the detail you could wish.
Allen Meadows, known as the Burghound, has been producing a splendidly in-depth newsletter on the wines of Burgundy for ten years now. A retired banker in his 50s, he had many years of drinking the stuff before he dared start commenting. Today his quarterly review on the wines in cask is clearly the best there is on the region, and I strongly recommend it. I can also vehemently commend this book to you. It is written with verve, it is totally up to date and, as far as I can see free of factual errors. Moreover I can only agree with the vast majority of his assesments on the wines.
The meat of The Pearl is a climat by climat assessment of the vineyards, from Les Beaux Monts to Les Suchots in premier cru, in alphabetical order, and Echézeaux to Romanée-Conti, in order of prestige, in grand cru. Meadows adds no domaine profiles, which is a pity, but there is a detailed tasting report at the end of each chapter, and no lack of detail on the individual domaine approaches to their task. Meadows has consumed plenty of fine, mature Burgundy, and he speaks with knowledge of what he writes.
Bravo Burghound !