Tasted at Goedhuis’s Burgundy tasting at the Saatchi Gallery. This remains a magnificent Clos-de-la-Roche. The bouquet immediately grabs you by the nostrils with cranberry, spice, rosemary, tobacco and Italian meats (indeed…there is something Tuscan about this wine, perhaps due to its opulence.) The palate is medium-bodied with rounded, supple tannins: bright cherries and strawberries, maintaining a high level of tautness from start to finish with just a hint of iron filings on the expansive aftertaste. Amazing persistency here. Superb. Drink 2014-2050. Tasted March 2010.

Beginning to show some hints of tertiary evolution, the 1999 Clos de la Roche Grand Cru Cuvée Vieilles Vignes is showing very well, delivering aromas of ripe plums, sweet red berries, exotic spices, orange rind and forest floor. Full-bodied, ample and seamless, with a fleshy core of fruit and a sapid, perfumed finish, this is one of the high points of Laurent Ponsot's time at the helm of this storied domaine.