An explosive, energetic wine, the 2012 Romanée-St.-Vivant is shaping up to be a jewel of a wine. Even with all of the richness of the year, the RSV is wonderfully lifted and precise, its power and pedigree implied rather than stated. As is often the case, the style is elusive and hard to describe. Now you see it, now you don't...in other words, the essence of Grand Cru Burgundy. I can't wait to taste the 2012 from bottle. Today, it is simply magnificent.

The 2012 Romanée-Saint-Vivant Grand Cru is a wine that I have not tasted since just after bottling. Three years on, it is clearly a class act. Lucid in colour, it has a captivating, exquisitely defined bouquet with that “ethereal purity” I remarked on previously. Cranberry and wild strawberry, freshly shucked oyster shells and brilliant focus. Maybe it has just tightened up in recent months. The palate is framed by precise tannin. This feels deep but light-footed and nimble, very focused with just the right amount of bitterness towards the finish. Just a beautiful wine that is just beginning to enter its stride. Tasted blind at 67 Pall Mall in London.

Medium red. Knockout truffley, earthy perfume to the aromas of raspberry, coffee, mocha, smoke, minerals and cocoa powder; seemed to go into a shell with aeration. Wonderfully silky, broad and dry; in a distinctly feminine style, showing lovely defintion and inner-mouth perfume to the flavors of red fruits, savory underbrush and flowers. Finishes with explosive perfume and length, and a firm spine of tannins to support a graceful evolution in bottle.

Dense, concentrated and introvert. Silky start and then it closes up. Very firm and with a massive tannic charge under some well-disciplined fruit. Almost severe. You would certainly be crazy to open this before 2025 and should ideally wait much longer. Not high on charm for the moment. Great structure and magnificent potential. Just a bit of a throb on the end. Silky and gorgeous after time. Minerals and really opened out. (JR)