The 2015 Nuits Saint-Georges 1er Cru La Richemone Vieilles Vignes "Cuvée Ultra" has another vibrant, generous bouquet with ample red cherry, cassis, crushed violet and mineral scents. It is very pure, almost sorbet-like. The palate is medium-bodied with fleshy ripe black cherry and blackcurrant fruit laced with a pinch of white pepper and minerals. Like Christophe's other 2015s, it offers panache in spades, with a caressing finish that lingers long in the mouth, a residue of orange rind on the aftertaste. This is excellent.

Bright, dark red-ruby. Pungent dark cherry, licorice, minerals and menthol on the nose, with an element of spicy oak emerging with air (one of the four barrels was new). The almost medicinal menthol element carries through on the rather powerful, closed palate, but the wine's very pure dark fruit and saline flavors already display a seamless texture. Very Nuits-Saint-Georges in its tannic structure, this premier cru will need extended cellaring.

Cask sample. Vines planted 1902. High toned. Bright bitter-cherry fruit. A little drying on the end. Sweet and rich. But with lots of (slightly drying) tension too. (JR)