(just a single 350-liter barrel made in 2016; Drouhin can make six pièces in a good year, according to winemaker Faure-Brac): Healthy dark red. Much more interesting on the nose than the Clos Vougeot, with aromas of raspberry, flowers, spices and medicinal menthol joined by riper notes of chocolate and mirabelle . Plush, ripe and sweet on the attack, offering a refined texture but suggesting a wide range of ripeness with its notes of prune, spices, mint and menthol. Finishes with serious, late-arriving tannins and a saline mineral quality that piques the taste buds. Still a bit disjointed, this wine will need patience to take its ultimate shape.

The 2016 Grands Echézeaux Grand Cru has a refined bouquet with blackberry, blueberry, woodland and spice box aromas—quite complex and very focused, growing in stature in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin. The oak comes through rather too strongly on the finish, and I hope this is assimilated by the time it is bottled. I did inquire and was told that it was matured in a single 350-liter barrel that was one year old, so maybe it was just one of those days?