(80% new oak): Good deep red with a ruby tinge. A ripe black cherry aroma is accented by fresh herbs and pepper. Sweet, fat and thick but with healthy acidity giving definition to the black cherry and spice flavors. Finishes tactile, powerful and long, with a broad dusting of tannins and a lingering note of coffee. This wine normally has the highest pH in the cellar but Mortet picked these vines on the first day of the harvest and the balance is all the better for it.

Tasted blind at Fine & Rare Wines' Clos Vougeot tasting, the 2013 Clos Vougeot Grand Cru from Domaine Denis Mortet has a very reduced nose at first, though returning after an hour it opens up to reveal raspberry, fresh strawberry and vanilla scents. The palate is medium-bodied with rounded tannin, a fine line of acidity and a gentle grip, but just missing some complexity towards the finish. This is one of the few Clos Vougeot that needs time, but I think that Arnaud Mortet conjured finer 2013s this year.

Tasted blind. Cappuccino nose with perhaps a little more sweetness, oak and evolution than is good for it. The fruit seems just a little too tired and worked. (JR)