At a modest 13.2%, the 2018 Vosne-Romanée Village is actually Lachaux's ripest wine this year, and it is showing brilliantly, unfurling with aromas of sweet wild berries, plums, orange rind, rose petals, woodsmoke and forest floor. Medium to full-bodied, satiny and concentrated, it's deep and lively, with juicy acids and powdery structuring tannins.

The 2018 Vosne-Romanée Village perhaps shows the whole-bunch influence more than the other Village Crus, to the point where I might have de-stemmed some bunches. The palate is fresh and crisp on the entry, with fine tannins, and here the whole bunch is better integrated. A saline, marine-influenced finish lingers in the mouth. This should drink after just a couple of years in bottle. Let’s see how the aromatics develop.

0.57 ha in two lieux-dits: Aux Saules and Aux Communes, both of which run in long strips down to the road. 100% whole bunch. Again that slightly greyer cherry red giving it rather a sober appearance. Lightly stemmy/herbal and savoury, more so than scented with fruit in this instance but no lack of fruit. Really light-footed on the palate, so delicate that some might say it is verging on the insubstantial but it is refined and perfectly balanced. Just a little too light on the finish so that the stems are more obvious, though very pure and the winemaking has not falsified the fruit. (JH)