This backward effort requires extensive swirling to reveal its restrained and spicy nose that mixes both red and dark currant, freshly turned earth and whisper of wood toast. There is exceptionally good richness and volume to the concentrated medium-bodied flavors that brim with dry extract that imparts a velvety mouthfeel as well as buffers the notably firm tannic spine shaping the muscular and youthfully austere finale. This intensely mineral-driven effort is clearly going to require time to soften the firm supporting tannins but also develop better depth. Lovely and a relatively understated CSJ.

The 2017 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Clos Saint-Jacques (Domaine Louis Jadot) unfurls in the glass with an incipiently complex bouquet of sweet red berries, coffee roast, raw cocoa, candied peel and cedary new wood. On the palate, the wine is medium to full-bodied, ample and layered, with an abundance of satiny structuring tannin, juicy acids and a long, pure finish. As usual, this will require some bottle age, but it's one of the high points of the collection.

The 2017 Gevrey-Chambertin Clos Saint-Jacques 1er Cru clearly has the finest bouquet of seven wines that I tasted from the appellation by Jadot. It is very precise and focused, showing superb edginess and impressive terroir expression. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin. This is quite linear in style, the fruit just a little muted toward the finish, but there is fine structure and detail on this more masculine Clos Saint-Jacques than anticipated.

Cask sample. Bright mid crimson. Pale rim. Really quite heady and distinctive on the nose. Attractive savoury cut on the palate but quite full bodied. This does immediately taste like grand cru weight. Masses of fruit and a little bit of bitter cherry on the end. Lightly muscular in a good way. Clean and brisk and long. (JR)