2015 Marsannay Clos de Jeu

Healthy medium red. A bit less black on the nose than the preceding '15s, offering aromas of red cherry and rose petal along with a faint animal quality. Broad, rich and seamless on the palate but with lovely inner-mouth floral lift and mineral spine to the dark raspberry and spice flavors. Displays obvious old-vines thickness of texture, not to mention the fullness of the vintage, yet also delivers terrific precision and finesse for Marsannay. The serious tannins are thoroughly buffered by fruit, with the finish lifted by a floral quality. According to Pierre-Jean Roty, the subsoil here is similar to that in the family's Charmes-Chambertin and it's the red clay element that gives this wine its structure.

Bright medium ruby. Medicinal scents of blackberry, cassis, licorice and violet. Very concentrated and penetrating but youthfully imploded; like biting into ripe, crunchy grapes. This very juice young Marsannay offers a superb balance of sweetness and acidity. The tight tannins are a bit like those of the Ouzeloy but with a bit more finesse. A Marsannay for aging.

(also from 80+ year old vines). A broad-ranging nose combines notes of wood toast and ultra-fresh black cherry, cassis, spice and earth aromas. There is excellent concentration to the big-bodied, firm and rustic flavors that possess fine power on the naturally sweet, very ripe and mildly warm finish where a the wood displayed by the nose resurfaces. Dec 2016, www.burghound.com