A wild bouquet of grilled game, dark berries and rich soil introduce the 2016 Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Les Vignes Rondes, a medium to full-bodied, firm and tangy wine that was more generous in barrel than it is from bottle, where fine but assertive Nuits tannins make their presence felt on the finish. While it's quite shut down today, I suspect it will actually attain its true plenitude before the fleshier, richer Chaignots, but in any case, it will require a decade's patience.

(30% of the crop was lost to frost): Bright, dark red with ruby highlights. Aromas of very dark berries, violet and licorice; less fruity than the Bas de Combe but more minerally. A step up in density and concentration, conveying a captivating stony pungency to its flavors of crushed black cherry, blackberry and minerals. Lovely clarity and inner-mouth tension here, not to mention excellent sneaky length for village wine. These degenerating vines, which average 50 years of age, are producing less and less, noted Marie-Christine Mugneret.