2015 Domaine Faiveley Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru

The 2015 Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru is a real success, opening in the glass with a youthfully reserved bouquet of ripe red berries, rich soil, musk, candied peel and a creamy framing of new oak. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, deep and quite dramatic for a young Clos de Vougeot, with abundant but fine structuring tannins, juicy acids and a nicely sappy finish. Give this the better part of a decade in the cellar.

(Faiveley has one parcel in the middle of the Clos and two at the bottom): Bright red with ruby tones. Pungent aromas of black cherry, crushed strawberry, licorice and flowers complicated by a hint of menthol minerality. A dense fruit bomb on the palate, with its strawberry and cherry flavors given grip and lift on the back end by substantial dusty tannins, which are not yet as well integrated as those of the Echézeaux. Not at all a high-pH style of Clos Vougeot in spite of its lingering salty character. Erwan Faiveley described 2015 as a great vintage for Clos Vougeot, adding that 2014 was also very good. But many of their vines in this grand cru were burned by the late-April frost in 2016, he added.