2013 Chambolle Musigny 1er Cru

The 2013 Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru has a slightly earthier and more masculine bouquet than the Chambolle Village, here the fruit a tad darker with wet gravel scents filtering through. There is something a little opaque about the aromatics - mysterious even. The palate is clean and precise, linear in the mouth with well judged acidity, not a powerful wine but detailed and quite sophisticated. It needs another 4-5 years in bottle, but it will be worth the wait. This is a beautifully crafted wine.

(from younger vines in Musigny, mostly 15 to 25 years of age): Bright dark red. Deeper on the nose than the village wine but still in a distinctly cool style, offering scents of bitter cherry, dark chocolate and pepper. A step up in sappiness and density, with black fruit flavors complicated by a licorice nuance. Finishes with dusty tannins and very good length.

Bright, dark red. High-pitched perfume of raspberry, orange zest, peony and white pepper. Tactile and sharply delineated, delivering terrific cut to its tart red berry and mineral flavors. Almost hard-edged in the early going owing to its inner-mouth tension and chewy tannins but plenty ripe ("there's a lot of cassis and blackberry in 2013," noted Millet). Finishes tactile, powerful and long, with repeating peppery lift. I recently tasted a very youthful bottle of the 2002 version of this wine and this '13 will probably be even longer-lived; in fact, it may be beginning to shut down now. 92+ Mar 2016, www.vinous.com, Drink: 2023-2034