The 2016 Richebourg Grand Cru is deep in colour compared to its peers. The bouquet is just stunning: laser-like focus of black cherries, bilberry, crushed stone and iris flowers that blossom with aeration, seeming to gain intensity with every passing moment. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin and perhaps more black than red fruit. Extremely well delineated with wonderful salinity, this begins to fan out on the finish. Then, remembering that it is just a baby, it tapers back in to remind you that it will need 10 to 15 years in the cellar before it reaches full flight. This is a fabulous wine. Tasted blind at the 2016 Burgfest tasting.

Bright red with ruby tones. Vibrant aromas of blackberry, blueberry and dark chocolate are lifted by a violet topnote. Utterly suave on entry, conveying outstanding precision and energy to its flavors of black and blue fruits and crushed rock, with a piquant hint of bitter orange marmalade contributing to the overall impression of nobility. Suave, toothdusting tannins are totally supported by fruit and the seamless, palate-saturating finish perfumes the mouth with minerals, violet and Valrhona bitter chocolate, going on for a minute or more. As charismatic as this young Richebourg is today, it's far from the most demonstrative wine in the cellar. It will need at least a decade of bottle aging and should last for at 25 to 30 years in a cool cellar.

5 barrels, a mix of new and second use. Transparent crimson. Rich, opulent nose. Gracious and masses of red fruit! Rich and intense and obviously in new oak, some of it very long and glam. Masses of energy. Great density and finesse. Wonderful. Very long. Etienne promises that it will develop continuously over the next few weeks. (JR)