Tasted blind at the Burgundy 2011 horizontal tasting in Beaune. The Richebourg 2011 from Etienne Grivot has a splendid bouquet with ripe, delineated raspberry, wild strawberry and red plum scents that are suffused with fine minerality. This just gets more and more complex in the glass. The palate is well balanced with fine tannins, crisp acidity and vibrant raspberry and cranberry fruit. It is nicely structured, which at the moment lends it a more masculine personality, but everything here is in its right place and there is precision all the way to the precise and tensile finish. Which 2011 Burgundy got the highest average score out of 250 tasted blind? This one.

The 2011 Richebourg is on an entirely other level from the previous grand crus. An explosive, full-bodied wine, the Richebourg bursts from the glass with blue and black fruits, violets and white pepper. A complex, multi-dimensional wine, the Richebourg boasts stunning depth and power married to pure elegance. Today it is vibrant, intense and riveting. This is a breathtaking wine from the Grivot family.

(75% new oak; from a crop level of about 28 hectoliters per hectare, according to Grivot): Good, bright deep red. Darker berries, smoky minerality and Oriental spices on the highly aromatic nose. The sweetest and most intense of these 2011s, conveying density of texture with a light touch and displaying superb precision and cut to its dark fruit, licorice and crushed stone flavors. The big, broad tannins spread out and vibrate on the very long finish. This really perfumes the mouth.

Mid, healthy ruby. Really rich on the nose – in the way that classic burgundy was meant to be. Then fresh and biscuity. Very pleasant even if a little lighter than some other vintages. Utterly correct without being mind-blowing. Decent persistence. (JR)