The 2013 La Tâche Grand Cru is dazzling. Bright and nuanced, the 2013 sizzles with energy right out of the gate. The 2013 is just starting to open. Ideally, a few more years in the cellar would be helpful, but the 2013 is so inviting at this stage. This late-ripening year produced a La Tâche that bristles with tension.

Aubert de Villaine remarked that there is "one more dimension" to the 2013 La Tâche Grand Cru and that he would be in no hurry to bottle it. The barrel sample makes an immediate impression on the nose. It is immeasurably complex with cranberry and pomegranate scents at first, autumn woodland accompanied by candied orange peel and limestone scents. The palate is very complex and beautifully balanced. Perfect acidity, surfeit with tension, this La Tâche gradually crescendos to a pixelated finish that has enormous persistence in the mouth. Stunning.

Medium red. Raspberry, Oriental spices, flowers and vanillin oak on the nose. Ripe and plush in the mouth, with the wine's spicy and floral components dominating its fruit in the early going. At once thick and taut, this compellingly juicy grand cru combines great class and considerable power. Most impressive today on the slowly building, horizontal aftertaste, which leaves the mouth perfumed.

Bright ruby. Very sweet and winning – really quite opulent in its charm. Sweet and herbal with a suggestion of sweet candy too. All singing and dancing – almost doing a cancan! Woo hoo, this wine is saying. Lots of sinew and polished tannins, Gloriously decadent. Though with a pretty serious charge of the finest, most delicate tannins. (JR)