2017 - Richebourg Grand Cru, Jean Grivot

The 2017 Richebourg Grand Cru sports an intense nose of mulberry, dark plum, sous-bois , fern and incense. This is complex and involving, and quite mercurial in the glass. Returning to the wine after 15 minutes, it develops a subtle minty aroma. The palate is velvety-smooth with enormous depth. A little more lush than its peers, it offers extremely pure red cherries, wild strawberry and blood orange toward a dried blood and spicebox-tinged finish that fans out gloriously. Just a wonderful wine. Tasted blind at the Burgfest 2017 tasting.

The king of the cellar is the 2017 Richebourg Grand Cru, a decidedly promising wine that wafts from the glass with notes of rose petal, dark wild berries, smoke, Asian spices, espresso roast, licorice and rich soil tones. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, deep and multidimensional, its satiny structuring tannins cloaked in succulent, fleshy fruit, its finish long and vibrant. The Richebourg stands apart for its amplitude and completeness this year.