The 2018 Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Cros Parantoux exhibits aromas of raspberries, red cherries, orange rind, smoked duck and spices. On the palate, it's medium to full-bodied, deep and concentrated, amply endowed with powdery structuring tannins and underpinned by succulent acids. The finish is long and penetrating. Harvested on September 10, the Cros Parantoux attained fully 14.4% alcohol this year. The 2018 vintage set a new but short-lived record at Domaine Emmanuel Rouget, in that the Cros Parantoux—a later-ripening site—checked in at fully 14.4% alcohol, a figure soon surpassed, only a year later, by the even headier 2019 vintage. Rouget picked quite late this year, waiting for full phenolic maturity, and the wines have turned out well: richer and more textural than the 2017s but hiding their alcohol. No doubt, long élevage in the family's cool, humid cellars in Flagey-Echézeaux helps with integration, too. There's just as much fruit as in 2017 but more carnal nuance, and parallels with the 1990 vintage might not be far-fetched, even if the 2018 weather was somewhat more extreme. I wrote last that the house style at this address is fleshy, even dramatic, and that for the better part of the last decade, it has arguably been more consistently realized than in any other era of the domaine's history, and this successful 2018 portfolio gives me no grounds to modify that favorable pronouncement. (WK)

The 2018 Vosne-Romanée Cros Parantoux 1er Cru, matured in 100% new oak, has a more introverted, backward bouquet than the Beaumonts. It offers precocious blackberry and raspberry preserve scents, then crushed stone aromas. This feels mercurial as it develops floral aromas of incense and crushed violet with time in glass. The palate is well balanced, intense and supremely detailed, and there is outstanding tension and real heft on the finish. This Cros Parantoux is a paradigm of the old "iron fist in a velvet glove" cliché. (NM)

Once again there is reduction present and here it's enough to mask the fruit though wisps of spice are perceptible. Otherwise there is fine richness and volume to the velvet-textured medium-bodied flavors that brim with both minerality and sappy dry extract before culminating in a very firm, youthfully austere and gorgeously persistent finish. But what impresses me the most is the strikingly fine depth and this outstanding effort should amply reward extended keeping. *Burghound Don't Miss, Outstanding!*