2007 Corton Clos des Cortons

Medium red with a hint of amber. Knockout perfume of strawberry, raspberry, dried flowers and truffley underbrush, complicated by a balsamic quality. Utterly silky and sweet but with harmonious and unexpected acidity framing and enlivening the complex flavors of red fruits, salty minerals and dried rose. All of the wine's elements are in perfect balance; in fact, it's so good right now that it's tempting to say it will never be better, but it should certainly go on for at least another decade. Finishes with fine-grained tannins and a long, spicy whiplash of flavor. While this wine is lighter than the '09 ("it can disappear behind the meat on the plate," said Erwan Faiveley), Faiveley pointed out that the fruit here came in with excellent phenolic maturity as there was plenty of nourishing rainfall and no vine stress during the summer months. Technical director Jérôme Flous added that Faiveley hired him in 2007 to change the style of their wines, partly by earlier harvesting, "and the early vintage duplicated my work so we got a quick result." (13.7% alcohol; 3.58 pH; 3.4 g/l acidity; 29 h/h; harvested on September 2, the earliest of the vintages in this tasting except for 2003)

Medium red with a palish rim. Reticent but pure aromas of strawberry and flowers, plus an exotic whiff of white fruits. Then silky, sweet and densely packed, but with superb energy and underlying minerality giving outstanding definition to the middle palate. A weightless yet utterly insinuating wine with a tightly coiled finish and outstanding subtle, rising length. Lay this beauty down for a decade.