2015 - Richebourg Grand Cru, Alain Hudelot-Noellat

The 2015 Richebourg Grand Cru is a prodigious wine in the making, opening in the glass with a deep bouquet of black raspberry, cherry, licorice, orange rind, incense and strawberry, subtly framed by new oak. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, multidimensional and complete, its flavors superbly concentrated and pure, its acids succulent and its tannins velvety and ample. More expansive than the Romanée Saint-Vivant, this Richebourg is also more backward and appears to possess the greater potential. "When I first arrived at the domaine, I tended to prefer the Romanée Saint-Vivant," confided winemaker Charles Van Canneyt, "but as my experience with the wines—old and young—grew, I have come to almost invariably favor the Richebourg."

Good dark red. At once darker, more restrained and less exotic on the nose than the Romanée-Saint-Vivant, offering scents of dark cherry, menthol and minerals. Boasts terrific thickness of texture but this is much tighter today than the RSV and showing less obvious early sweetness; Charles van Canneyt noted that this wine was more accessible in barrel than the RSV but not today. Still, this very long, sappy wine possesses the creamy depth to support its considerable tannic power and I would not be at all surprised if it eventually surpassed the RSV.

Some floral element on the nose. Succulent and opulent but without quite the drive of this producer's Romanée-St-Vivant. (JR)