The 2016 Gevrey-Chambertin Aux Combottes 1er Cru has an intense bouquet with vivacious blackberry, raspberry and rose petal scents that just blossom in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with grainy tannin and plenty of graphite infused black fruit. A fresh and quite tensile finish demonstrates great precision and persistence. Classy and long term, but I would like to see more of the verve that it displayed copiously in barrel. Tasted at the Domaine.

(25% vendange entier ; this parcel is located next to Lignier's Clos de la Roche but the soil is more sandy and less rocky): Good dark red. Complex aromas of cherry, raspberry, menthol and licorice complicated by a suggestion of saline minerality. Dense, deep, sappy wine with lovely finesse of texture but also an impression of power to its flavors of plum, cherry and salty minerals. This is balanced from the start but has the stuffing to age slowly. (Incidentally, there's no more Gevrey-Chambertin La Perrière, as the vineyard owner sold these vines after a ten-year fermage arrangement with the Ligniers expired.)