Already on the nose of Ambroise's 2006 Nuits St.-Georges Clos Les Vaucrains, one senses that it is less about sweetness of fruit – although black raspberry and cassis have a distillate-like presence – than it is about smoky carnal and mineral elements, accompanied by pungent herbal notes. The meatiness and stoniness of flavors here – when taken together with the wine's viscosity, underlying density, impression of sinewy, slightly chewy tannic structure, and peppery finishing pungency – puts me in mind as much of Hermitage as of Burgundian Pinot. Suggestions of roasted nuts and coffee add further dark, faintly bitter shadings to this formidable, compactly-layered, brooding wine (remarkably similar to its 2005 counterpart) but at the same time an enhanced sense of ripe black fruits informs its long, tactilely gripping finish. Some tasters may find this too overbearing to harbor hope of its achieving elegance, but it is quite an achievement as is, and one I suspect will gain in complexity over the next several years and be worth following for a decade.
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate