2014 Domaine Hudelot-Noëllat Romanée-Saint-Vivant Grand Cru

Deep, dark red. Brooding, youthfully medicinal aromas of red cherry, dark berries, mocha and cocoa powder. Dense and tactile, with dark cherry, raspberry and spice flavors showing enough sweetness to support the wine's salty minerality. Finishes sappy, energetic, precise and very long, with substantial ripe tannins in need of cellaring.

I knew that the 2014 Romanée-Saint-Vivant Grand Cru would be great when I tasted it from barrel last year...but not this great. It has a wonderful, tensile bouquet that just seems to sparkle. The fruit is so crystalline and laden with energy and mineralité that you almost have to sit down! The palate is surfeit with energy, the fruit perhaps a little darker than in barrel with white pepper, spices towards the almost Richebourg-like finish. Tasting them side-by-side, I would err for this over the Richebourg - it is a magnificent wine from Charles van Canneyt.

(this and the Richebourg were aged in 50% new oak): Healthy dark red. Flamboyantly ripe aromas of musky dark cherry, dark berries, mocha and bitter chocolate. Wonderfully sweet in the mid-palate but with a serious spine of acids and tannins and strong soil salinity currently keeping the wine's primary fruits under wraps. Tannins are a bit tough in the early going but there should be more than enough stuffing to support them.