Tasted out of barrel at the Domaine. The Charmes initially has a timid bouquet with dark cherries, a touch of umeboshi and sea salt. Lovely delineation, but tightly wound at the moment. The palate is medium-bodied with very fine but firm tannins, a beguiling symmetry at play here, the finish linear and with the precision of a razor blade. Astoundingly fine. Tasted November 2010.

(bottled in May of 2011): Ruby-red. Wild, complex aromas of huckleberry, game, coffee, licorice, lavender and smoky oak. Wonderfully sweet and seamless, spreading out to saturate the entire palate with saline black fruit and mineral flavors. Boasts outstanding depth and a superb mounting finish featuring fine-grained tannins. Extremely young today and likely to evolve slowly. Hail here held down both yield and alcohol level.

The 2009 Charmes-Chambertin Vieilles Vignes is starting to close down. An initial blast of blue and black fruit leads to sweet, perfumed flowers as the wine slowly unfurls in the glass. Still, it is clear that the 2009 is in no mood to reveal all of its cards. Glimpses of its beauty appear from time to time, but the 2009 is a wine whose best days lie somewhere in the future. For now, this tasting is enough to confirm that the wine is indeed quite special.