2016 - Vosne-Romanee Au-dessus des Malconsorts, Benjamin Leroux

(12.8% alcohol; vinified in a new oak barrel, then aged in a two-year-old barrique; very early malo; vinified with 80% whole clusters; no hail here): Good medium red. Pristine perfume of black cherry, violet, licorice and crushed stone, lifted by a topnote of blood orange. Wonderfully silky, dry wine with inner-mouth floral lift and crushed-rock minerality. Verging on austere on the back end, finishing with penetrating dryness and superb rising length. Leroux plans to bottle this wine directly from the barrel, probably in magnums. These vines are on a rocky site at the top of the vineyard, which Leroux describes as much more minerally than the foot of the slope. He added that the vines are only 35 to 40 years old.

The 2016 Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Malconsorts-Dessus was fermented in a new 600-liter barrel and then transferred into used oak, with 80% whole-bunch fruit. It is tightly wound on the nose, but you can tell there are plenty of intense black cherry and wild strawberry fruits packed in this premier cru. The palate is very well structured with plenty of blackberry and raspberry fruit, the oak imprinted a little conspicuously toward the finish but that will be subsumed with three or four years in bottle. This has a lot of potential—watch out for this one.

Very small premier cru. It touches Gaudichots, which he thinks it resembles. On the same calcaire seam. Tasted in magnum. Light crimson. Exciting racy stuff. Very sweet start but with fantastic energy. Slightly modern in style. Great intensity. (JR)