As it was from cask this is more restrained than usual and it requires aggressive swirling to coax the pure and spicy essence of red berry fruit aromas to emerge from the glass where there is a slight hint of herbal tea present. There is a similar reserve to the distinctly focused and linear flavors that enjoy a seemingly unlimited reserve of dry extract that renders the fine-grained and silky tannins almost invisible at present though I suspect that they will become much more apparent once the baby fat melts away. There is superb complexity and fantastic length and this mineral-driven effort should be capable of drinking well after only 12 years or so of bottle age but require a solid 20 before it's completely mature. While La Tâche is almost by definition a superbly elegant wine there is also always an inner core of muscle. In 2011 it seems to have more of the former and a bit less of the latter, indeed this may the first vintage in quite a while where it is ready before the Richebourg.

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The La Tache 2011, picked on 5 and 6 September at 27.49hl/ha, has a wonderful bouquet that is quintessential La Tache: very complete and harmonious, beautifully delineated, succinct at first then with aeration, blossoming with brambly red berries, apple blossom, minerals and a touch of sous-bois. The palate is medium-bodied with immense purity and delicacy on the entry. This La Tache is extremely focused, velvety smooth in the mouth and although not as complex as the 2010, it has a beguiling femininity that will seduce at ten paces. It is extremely long in the mouth but politely does not outstay its welcome. Divine. (NM)

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Bright, medium red-ruby. Subdued but very pure and nuanced aromas of tangy red fruits, flowers, Oriental spices, licorice and crushed stone, plus an exhilarating hint of peach. Wonderfully suave on entry, then rich, ripe, dry and sharply delineated, showing outstanding refinement and aristocratic reserve to its spicy red and blue fruit flavors. The rising finish goes on and on, with noble tannins thoroughly buffered by fruit. This wine has the early balance to give great pleasure within the next couple of years--or, better yet, lay it down for a decade. (ST)

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