A much more restrained, even taciturn nose that is actually quite ripe, spicy, fresh and diaphanous features primarily floral infused red berry, mineral and Asian spice aromas that merge gracefully into supple, round and tautly muscled broad-shouldered flavors that are almost as pure as those of the RSV, all wrapped in a detailed, focused and almost painfully intense finish brimming with minerality and striking length. This is a karate champion of a wine that isn't especially big but the power of the punch is hard to believe.

Professional content appears courtesy of Vinfolio

Bright medium red. Pungent aromas of wild strawberry, minerals, spices and pepper. Not a fat wine but classy and suave, with terrific peppery, minerally lift in the middle palate. With aeration, this classically dry wine showed a stronger soil component and mounting power. Finishes with superb breadth and an impression of weightlessness. I might have initially mistaken this for the RSV-and vice-versa-had I tasted these blind, but this is ultimately the more powerful wine.

Professional content appears courtesy of Vinfolio

Gorgeously sweet red-fruit fragrance. Again with that slghtly stemmy note as in the Grands Échezeaux. Darker fruit and more spice on the palate. Smooth, dry and firm all at once. Grain of the tannins more present and a more savoury aftertaste than the Échezeaux and Grands Échezeaux. A journey from perfumed red fruit to darker savoury tension on the finish. Then at the very end it slides away – long but delicate. (JH)

Professional content appears courtesy of Vinfolio

Game, musk, Latakia tobacco, and dark berries in the nose of the Domaine's 2007 Richebourg foreshadow flavors of salted tart black fruits, roasted game, and hints of black pepper and tar, all underlain by mouth-coating, faintly gum-numbing if fine-grained, tannins. After the charm of the Echezeaux, imposing sweetness of the Grands-Echezeaux, and savory mystery of the Romanee-St.-Vivant, I confess I may be at fault in not conceiving an inspiring role to assign this faintly Syrah-like Richebourg. It displays impressive amplitude, ripeness, and sheer grip ' especially for its vintage ' but is slightly ungainly (as it was earlier in barrel), if perhaps merely adolescently so. I would (in an ideal world, of course!) want to revisit this in 3-4 years, though I am sure it is built to last for well more than a decade.

Professional content appears courtesy of Vinfolio