The 1996 Grands Echézeaux Grand Cru is a wine that I have not tasted since bottling. It has a beautifully, well-defined bouquet with black fruit rather than red, briary, juniper and subtle tobacco aromas. With aeration, more iodine-like scents join the chorus line. The palate is medium-bodied and beautifully balanced, not quite as precision-tooled as the Romanée-Saint-Vivant, yet rather penetrating on the oyster shell finish. Impressive - I wonder if this has more to give? Tasted at the 1243 Club in Beaune.

This dark-colored wine displays a magnificently elegant nose of cassis, black cherries, and roses. This is an austere yet expansive, complex, medium-to-full-bodied, ripe and masculine wine. It is dense and powerful yet maintains a refined combination of muscle and class. Its tightly wound core offers red and black currants, cherries, minerals, and toasted oak flavors, all of which linger in its admirably focused and firm finish. Projected maturity: 2003-2012. Importer: Wilson-Daniels, St. Helena, CA; tel. (707) 963-9661.

Similar color. More aromatic, perfumed aromas of cassis, redcurrant, vanilla and oak char. Sweeter and a bit denser, but sharply delineated thanks to firm acidity. Finishes long and spicy, with more authority than the Echezeaux.