2018 Domaine Mugneret-Gibourg Ruchottes-Chambertin Grand Cru

The 2018 Ruchottes-Chambertin Grand Cru has an intense bouquet of black fruit with veins of blueberry, infused with crushed rock and rose petal. Full of tension, this is classic Ruchottes. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-boned tannins, and lightly spiced, displaying an unerring sense of symmetry toward the saline finish. It needs bottle age to fully knit together, and whether it will surpass the 2019 we will have to see. Still, this is a superb Ruchottes that will evolve over 20–30 years.

The 2018 Ruchottes-Chambertin Grand Cru is matured in 70% new oak. It has a broody, introspective nose at first, but there is a sense of nascent intensity as it gradually unfurls in the glass, revealing raspberry, wild strawberry and crushed limestone aromas. The medium-bodied palate offers supple, pliant tannins. Quite saline in the mouth, with admirable density and complexity on the mineral-rich finish. This seems to revel in the 2018 vintage. A wonderful Ruchottes.

The 2018 Ruchottes-Chambertin Grand Cru was showing extremely well, soaring from the glass with an exuberant bouquet of cherries, raspberries, blood orange, espresso roast, dark chocolate and nicely integrated new oak. On the palate, it's full-bodied, velvety and supple, with almost melting tannins that are entirely cloaked in rich but lively fruit and concluding with a beautifully defined finish. If the 2017 Ruchottes is ethereal and supremely elegant, the 2018 occupied a richer, more gourmand and textural register, but it remains exquisitely well balanced.