(90-95 points) The Vaucrains was hard to understand as it could go either way. On the one hand a surfeit of exceptionally lush fruit; on the other some smoky notes and a slightly dry finish. I don’t feel that I have understood this well enough to make a clear judgement and have accordingly sat on the fence.

(93 - 95 points) The 2018 Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Les Vaucrains is powerful and muscular, opening in the glass with aromas of cassis, ripe wild blueberries, dark chocolate, rose petals, rich soil tones and smoked meats. Full-bodied, rich and muscular, it's deep and concentrated, with a serious chassis of ripe, powdery tannins, lively acids and a long, resonant finish. As usual, this is the most powerful wine in the Chevillon cellar.- WK

(92-94 points) The 2018 Nuits Saint-Georges Les Vaucrains 1er Cru matches Chevillon’s Les Saint-Georges pound for pound in terms of intensity and precision, offering brambly black fruit, crushed rock, tangerine and raspberry preserve scents that blossom with aeration. The medium-bodied palate features very supple tannins and pitch-perfect acidity, although perhaps at the moment the Les Saint-Georges demonstrates more complexity and terroir expression toward the finish. The Vaucrains is more introspective and remains a little aloof on the finish (at least for now). One for the cellar. -- Neal Martin

93+ The vineyard of Vaucrains produces powerful wines in virtually every vintage- at least when the wine is young- and this is amplified in the vintage of 2018. This will be a fine bottle in due course, but patience will be very much required, as this will need a good twenty years to start to stir. The bouquet offers up superb purity and nascent complexity, wafting from the glass in a mix of red and black cherries, bonfire, gamebird, a touch of nutskin, a very good base of soil tones, bitter chocolate and a touch of vanillin oak. On the palate the wine is deep, powerful and broad-shouldered, with a rock solid core, excellent soil signature and a very powerful, massively tannic and very, very long finish. I have never tasted a young vintage of Vaucrains that was this tannic, but the tannins are buried into the body of the wine and I really feel there is enough depth of fruit here to age alongside of the tannins and eventually produce a fine bottle.