1996 Clos Vougeot Le Grand Maupertuis

This black-colored wine offers aromas of creamy red cherries and Asian spices imbued with charred oak. An explosion of super-extracted, and massively-powerful cassis, blackberries, and brambleberries assault the palate in this full-bodied, chewy-textured, and unbelievably dense wine. It is inconceivable to imagine a more concentrated and intensely packed wine. It formidably long finish displays satiny yet firm tannins. In ten or more years if this wine has evolved, my score may appear pathetically low. Projected maturity: 2004-2012+. Readers looking for ruby-colored, delicate, refined, and elegant wines to drink over the next decade are well-advised to shop elsewhere. Domaine Anne Gros' offerings are highly extracted monsters. Anne Gros is pushing the extraction and concentration envelope of this wine to uncharted limits. This inky, hugely-dense, and highly-structured wine may, in time, evolve into a stellar Burgundy, meriting a significantly higher rating than the one I've provided, but a wine of such sheer size and weight does not always age gracefully. Time will tell. A Peter Vezan Selection (Paris Fax # 011-33-1-42-65-42-93).