2015 Romanee St Vivant

The 2015 Romanée-Saint-Vivant Grand Cru has a very complex bouquet with redcurrant, crushed strawberry and pomegranate with subtle undergrowth scents and wilted roses in your aunt's antique vase. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin, very energetic and lively with a crisp line of acidity. This is beautifully poised, the 100% new oak almost completely subsumed with a slight savory note towards the finish. It actually reminds me of the stupendous 2012 when I tasted that in barrel (which tasted brilliantly more recently, incidentally). Fabulous and sensual, this has a long and prosperous future ahead.

(just two new barrels of this juice; not yet racked): Bright, full red. Very reticent aromas of raspberry, roast coffee, cocoa powder and spicy oak. Plush, sweet and broad, offering the velvety texture of the vintage's best examples. But with its complex, adamant minerality, this mouthfilling wine also conveys an impression of huge sappy extract . The tannins are thorougly coated by fruits and minerals on the very long, sophisticated finish. This, too, should develop gracefully in bottle over two decades or more.