The 2015 La Tâche Grand Cru was picked on 7 and 8 September at 25 hectoliters per hectare. Having enjoyed the startling 1999 La Tâche in recent weeks, I was privately conjecturing how the 2015 would compare. It is more immediate on the nose compared to the Richebourg: shucked oyster shells, a tangible marine influence that permeates the exceptionally pure black fruit and then after three or four minutes, I noticed a distant hint of black truffle joining the fray. The palate is intriguing. It is very tightly wound at first, smooth and silky in texture but underneath there is fire in its belly: quite spicy and energetic. Then it delivers a very assertive grip on the structured finish as it coats the inner mouth, a La Tâche with otherworldly persistence, the tongue tingling two minutes after the wine has departed. If I can use a technical wine term...wow.

The 2015 La Tâche Grand Cru is a young classic, soaring from the glass with an exotic and stunningly complex bouquet of dark berries, plums, hoisin, smoked duck, dark chocolate, licorice and Chinese five spice, with just a touch of rose hip on the upper register. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, multidimensional and authoritative, with more mid-palate depth than the Richebourg, its attack more textural and layered. The tannins here are fine grained but firm—swathed in an ample core of plummy, almost savory fruit—and the finish is long and scintillating. Cropped at 25 hectoliters per hectare and harvested September 7 and 8.

(racked): Bright, saturated red. A bit darker on the nose than most of the foregoing '15s, offering highly complex yet somewhat somber scents of medicinal black cherry, licorice, violet, sandalwood and black tea. Then extremely primary in the middle palate, showing less early sweetness than the Richebourg but outstanding breadth and thickness and a texture of liquid silk. This seriously structured, very long, powerfully mineral wine finishes with major ripe tannins and chocolate and spice notes.

Fresh strawberry fruit and piquant spices that evoke cardamom, clove and pepper. Fragrant and broad with strong presence on the finish – long, layered and intense. Can hardly be called restrained, yet there is a sense that much is yet to be revealed here. Even so – if you have the luxury of choosing – it doesn’t quite have the star power of their Richebourg at present. (RH)