2015 Corton Clos du Roi

(80% vendange entier ): Bright dark red. A touch of musky reduction to the aromas of blackberry, dried flowers and wild, resiny herbs. Boasts lovely stony intensity but surprising pliancy and plumpness in the middle palate despite being a bit youthfully linear in the early going. Very classy, refined, ripe wine, and by far the silkiest on the finish of this collection. The soil here is all sand and rocks, according to Claude de Nicolay.

The 2015 Corton Clos du Roi Grand Cru is a magical wine in the making, opening in the glass with a deep and brooding bouquet of cherries, plum preserve, espresso roast, rich soil, dark chocolate and dried rose petals. On the palate, the wine is incredibly complete and multidimensional, with an ample chassis of fine-grained, chalky tannins, a bright line of acidity, and immense concentration and length. More deep and layered than the Corton Bressandes, this Clos du Roi is also finer-boned and more mineral, its aromas and flavors less wild and "sauvage," and while the wine's considerable structure will demand a decade of bottle age, this will be a benchmark Corton in the fullness of time. Apr 2018, www.robertparker.com