(like the Clos Vougeot and Saint-Georges, this wine was bottled at the beginning of September of '17): Bright, saturated ruby. Deep scents of wild mountain berries and licorice, with a touch of chocolatey reduction. Plush and fine-grained; not now showing the thrust and backbone this grand cru normally displays but then there's still a good bit of baby fat here. Flavors of black raspberry, licorice and smoky minerality come across as classically dry and laid-back. This extremely backward wine impresses today for its palate-coating horizontality. Liger-Belair vinified this grand cru with some whole clusters for the first time in 2015 and it has clearly brought more texture, but the wine appears to be passing through an awkward stage.

The 2015 Richebourg Grand Cru has a deep color and a slightly forced nose that is perhaps accentuated by its juxtaposition against Etienne Grivot's Richebourg. Flavors of dark berry fruit, brown spices and a touch of soy are a little smudged, and the oak is not quite singing from the same hymn sheet at the moment. The palate is medium-bodied with grippy tannin, offering assertive structure and impressive weight and concentration - almost Bordeaux-like toward the finish. This definitely needs a lot of time in the cellar. Tasted blind at the annual Burgfest tasting.

Cask sample. Strongly reductive nose. Compressed, sweet fruit with a lot of generous oak spice. Wonderfully layered tannin – extremely fine, yet very persistent. Finishes with a long, symphonic persistence. Needs time for the nose to absorb the sulphur, but when it does this will be stellar. (RH)