2012 Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair La Romanée Grand Cru

Sweet, succulent red cherries, plums, mint, spices, violets and rose petals hit the palate in the 2012 La Romanée, a wine built on pure, visceral intensity. A huge mid-palate and explosive finish round things out in grand style, but what I admire most about the 2012 is the constant push and pull of finesse and power. There are a number of compelling wines in this tasting, the 2012 is at or near the top of the list. Readers who have the possibility of acquiring a few bottles of the 2012 should not hesitate, as it is truly a wine for kings and queens.

All the signatures of site are amped up in Liger-Belair's 2012 La Romanée. Intense ripe fruit and a huge core of pure structure meld together in a rich, exuberant wine that captivates both hedonistic and intellectual senses. Beams of supporting minerality on the finish rein in some of the exuberant elements, resulting in a captivating push and pull of fruit and structure. The 2012 needs a good decade-plus of cellaring, but it is magnificent, even today.

Bright medium red. Muskier on the nose than the Echézeaux, offering scents of red raspberry, smoke, spices and stone. Sweet, plush and deep but youthfully reserved, with powerful, sharply defined berry and spice flavors complicated by saline minerality. Wonderfully spherical, perfumed grand cru with a whiplash of a finish. But this is hiding more than it's showing in the early going.