2015 Charmes Chambertin Les Mazoyeres

The 2015 Charmes Chambertin les Mazoyeres Grand Cru offers up notes of red and black fruit, beetroot, earth and whole cluster spice. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, rich and silky, with an expansive attack, a layered mid-palate and a long, saline finish. This is quite stylized, marked by whole cluster fermentation which seems to give it a high pH feel, but for admirers of this particular aesthetic—a perspective my score reflects—this should offer two decades of rewarding drinking.

(still in fûts ): Reticent, brooding aromas of kirsch and dark berries. Supple but a bit youthfully brooding in the middle palate, with blackberry, black cherry and licorice flavors coming across as a bit stunted today. Can't quite match the Bonnes-Mares for inner-mouth energy or detail, but at a crop level of 25 hectoliters per hectare, this is impressively concentrated. The darker fruit character carries through on the long finish. Aeration brought increased sweetness, spice character and pliancy, suggesting that this wine will enjoy a graceful evolution in bottle.

The 2015 Charmes-Chambertin Les Mazoyeres Grand Cru comes from vines planted way back in 1902. It has a very succinct bouquet, almost understated at first (atypically for this grand Cru) then builds with vivacious Morello cherry, redcurrant and wild strawberry scents struck through with fine mineralité and tension. The palate is medium-bodied with a slightly candied opening, a little more savory than I was expecting, hints of cooked meat percolating through the red and black fruit with veins of marmalade and Satsuma pith towards the finish. It felt quite mercurial, constantly changing in my glass, fortunately gaining more and more cohesion. Intriguing! Dec 2016, www.robertparker.com, Drink: 2020-2040