Tasted blind at the Burgfest 2014 tasting, Rousseau's 2014 Gevrey Chambertin 1er Cru Clos Saint Jacques has a very refined and delineated bouquet with prudent use of new oak here that is seamlessly integrated and allows the vibrant red fruit to flourish. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin, crisp acidity, very good tension and a welcome dash of spice toward the finish that conveys genuine substance and class. The aftertaste is incredibly long—the mouth tingling with residual spiciness long after the wine has departed. This is stunning and, dare I suggest, equal to Rousseau's Chambertin and Clos de Bèze. Tasted September 2017.

Bright red. Knockout nose offers scents of black raspberry, cherry, rose petal, smoky minerality and sexy sweet oak. Tactile, ripe and spicy, with pepper and spice high notes accentuating the wine's sharp definition. Redder its in fruit character than the Clos des Ruchottes, and even finer-grained in the middle palate, but also more tannic on the back end owing to the wine's much higher percentage of new oak (80%). Most impressive today on the extremely long, classy, vibrant aftertaste, which leaves the salivary glands humming.

70% new oak. For the moment it is not singing as loudly as the Clos de Ruchottes. Lots going on underneath and it will probably all come out but it is lurking. Lot of tannin, Eric thinks because of the fruit in 2014. (JR)