2015 Clos des Lambrays

The 2015 Clos des Lambrays Grand Cru continues to show very well, unfurling in the glass with a rich bouquet of ripe plums, blackberries, dark chocolate and forest floor. On the palate, it's full-bodied, satiny and powerful, with an ample chassis of fine structuring tannins and a deep core of fruit, but the wine is shutting down and is more inscrutable than it was six months earlier. Readers with bottles in their cellars are sitting on a great example of Clos des Lambrays, one of the best produced since the 1970s, but a decade's patience is advised.

(100% vendange entier ): Healthy dark red. Pure but tight aromas of raspberry, spices, rose petal, licorice and herbs. Densely packed and vibrant--impressively so for a 2015--with notes of bitter orange rind and peppery herbs accenting its flavors of red berries, brown spices, menthol, mocha and underbrush. Very savory wine with terrific spicy depth, as well as more punch than the 2016. Finishes very firm and extremely long, with serious but refined tannins and superb lift. An outstanding vintage for this grand cru, this wine combines the best characteristics of 2005 and 2010, and that's a formula for longevity and greatness.