Domaine Lafouge Auxey-Duresses Les Hautés Rouge

Translucent red ruby color. With swirling, an emerging nose of fennel, underbrush, iron-inflected violets, earth. Layers of iron, crisp red raspberry, and rare earth on the focused palate. Firm but filed off tannin balancing equally firm, copious acidity. Longer finish of red coppery fruit, iron flecks, and fine soil. Beautiful wine showing quite young but delicious nonetheless.

Medium ruby hue. Nose of damp cellar, dark violets, fecund soil, sharp iodine, dark berry. Utterly satisfying layers of black cherry and raspberry fruit cut with savory, spicy fine earth and plummy depths on the palate. Lively acidity and moderated tannin. Long finish of black raspberry, dark earth, and stone. Young but very, very good.

Young, red fruit, a little anise and smoke,tangy and long. Very good for vintage. B+

Light ruby color. Nose of young berry, floral notes, turned soil, brier. Etched layers of sharp, pure raspberry and strawberry fruit on the palate cut with earth and stone. Copious acidity and serious but slightly smoothed tannin. Longer finish of red berry and brambles. Excellent showing for such a young wine. Will undoubtedly improve.

More earth and cocoa than bramble now, and less rustic than a few years back. Leather notes are just beginning to show. We didn't decant; it was immediately drinkable but improved over two hours. No sediment. Great buy at $25 locally on close-out.

Nice balance of powerful brambly red fruit, leafy texture and persistent finish. A hint of rusticity adds complexity. This was very easy to drink

Great showing. Pomegranate and other high toned red fruits, some subtle earth tones, good balancing acidity and focus, real palate presence and a wine that is both powerful and finessed at the same time. Not the most complex or thrilling vintage for this wine, but completely solid, and even at this young age, entirely drinkable and pleasurable.

Chilled then popped and poured. Light to medium ruby color. Nice nose of raspberry, heady floral notes, cinnamon, stone. Ripe but stony black plum and mulberry fruit layering with simple authority on the palate, showing ample concentration and purity. Laced with iron and earth notes and brimming with fresh acidity. Tannins stern but overshadowed by primary fruit. Moderate finish of detailed mulberry fruit, grip, and iron. Surprisingly open at this infant stage, this will only get better.

A bit lighter and more elegant than the 2010 of this, pretty wine with red fruit, cocoa, and earth. Bright, easy to like, drinking well now but with a future. B+/A-

This has a delicately perfumed nose of cherries, spice and plums; The palate is very elegant and lithe, with lots of high-toned fruits and a touch of earth, with medium-plus acidity on the finish; Really nice right now, I think this will improve with 3-5+ years of bottle age; Glad I have a few more that I can stash away to track its development

Lovely nose of heavily mineral infused pinot fruit, a little foxy and of animal fur, some dried flowers. Nothing terribly pungent, nothing sticks out, not too subtle, not too flashy, not too rich, not too tannic...perhaps this is simply a good wine from a decent enough vintage that drinks well right now. Good acidity and balance, and yet there doesn't seem to be enough going on at the core to entice me to cellar this.

A bit muted on the nose but very clean young pinot fruit. Acidity on top and underlying quite sweet fruit. The 2011 will not be an immediate charmer like 2007 and does not have the fruit as 2009 nor the completeness like 2010. We'll see what it turns into.