2016 Clos St Martin

Touch of reduction on the first nose, but it clears to reveal a beautifully balanced wine. This is a great vintage across Left and Right bank, easily the best since 2010 globally, and at this particular estate it surpasses the 2010. Truffle, chocolate, black pepper running through fully ripe black fruits balanced by the saline grip of a limestone soil. Personalty and punch. 25% amphora ageing as of this vintage, with the rest still vinified and aged in new oak barrels.

The 2016 Clos Saint-Martin is extremely pure and intense on the nose, which features black cherries, wild strawberries and pressed violets, but comparing them side by side, I find more charm and cohesion in the 2015 Clos Saint-Martin. The palate is in fact more promising than the aromatics, framed by fine-boned tannins and very good acidity. There is superb precision on display, with that limestone terroir more expressive on the finish compared to the previous vintage. If the aromatics improve, this might surpass the 2016; we shall have to see. Tasted at a vertical of recent vintages at the château.

Tasted blind. Rich, sweet, and rather punishing drying tannins. A little twentieth century. Tad more like cocoa than wine. (JR)