The 2018 Nuits Saint-Georges Clos de la Maréchale 1er Cru was tasted from a blend of five cuvées. It has an attractive bouquet of mainly black fruit laced with black tea and bay leaf notes, plus touches of rose petal in the background. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-grained tannins, tending more toward a red fruit profile, with wonderful salinity on the finish. Good potential. Excellent.

The white parcel is on the right of the Clos next to the wall and so better protected from the hail that did so much damage to the Pinot in July 2017. Chardonnay grafted onto 1980s rootstocks in 2005. No new oak. Barrel sample. Will be bottled end February 2020. Pale gold. Intense, ripe, spicy and broad on the nose. Ripe pear and golden fruit but not sweet. Hard to describe. Big and spicy on the palate, powerful but super-fresh and with definite tannins. So structured. There’s something like dry not sweet honey in its richness. Full in the mouth, dense and structured but fresh even in 2018. Long and gorgeous. Distinctive. (JH)