Bright ruby-red. Slightly reduced, very deep aromas of black raspberry and musky minerality, along with a bit of oakiness. Then sappy and outrageously concentrated on the palate, with a three-dimensional depth of texture to its sweet, savory flavors of dark berries, spices, and rose petal lifted by a citrus skin topnote. Really extraordinary fruit intensity here. The endless, palate-staining finish features fine-grained, fully ripe tannins that spread out to saturate the mouth, saline minerality and subtle lingering notes of cocoa powder and flowers. An extraordinary wine in the making, from a crop level of 27 hectoliters per hectare.

Sweet, succulent red cherries, plums, mint, spices, violets and rose petals hit the palate in the 2012 La Romanée, a wine built on pure, visceral intensity. A huge mid-palate and explosive finish round things out in grand style, but what I admire most about the 2012 is the constant push and pull of finesse and power. There are a number of compelling wines in this tasting, the 2012 is at or near the top of the list. Readers who have the possibility of acquiring a few bottles of the 2012 should not hesitate, as it is truly a wine for kings and queens.