2014 Ruchottes Chambertin

(these vines are almost 60 years old):Healthy bright ruby-red; the darkest of these '14s. Expressive, deep nose offers scents of boysenberry, violet, wild spices and meat. Very concentrated and dense but weightless, conveying an attractive restrained sweetness and a slightly honeyed character to the flavors of dark berries, minerals and meat. Precise but not at all hard, with big but pliant tannins arriving late. Some Pinot Beurrot in this parcel gives the wine an added measure of gras , notes Frédéric Esmonin. Clearly the pick of the litter in 2014.

The 2014 Ruchottes-Chambertin Grand Cru has a clean, quite deep, purple-tinged hue. The bouquet is rounded, quite opulent with macerated dark cherries, red plum, vanilla extract and a touch of violet. Very...Ruchottes, though it does not quite deliver the precision of say, Mugneret-Gibourg or Armand Rousseau. The palate is medium-bodied with sappy red fruit on the entry, moderate weight in the mouth, quite extracted in style and as a consequence, like the nose, it is missing some precision on the finish. It has the substance to suggest that it will repay bottle aging, though personally I have a preference for the 2014 Lavaux Saint-Jacques.