2015 Musigny

The complexity of aromas is so exciting here with smoke, tar, meat and hints of flowers, too. Plenty of fruit. Full-bodied, layered, tannic and powerful. Muscular. Needs five to six years to soften.

(35% vendange entier ; Drouhin made four barrels vs. a normal six): Good dark red. Darker fruits on the nose than the Baudes, with scents of blackberry, licorice, cocoa powder and minerals lifted by violet and peony high notes. Delivers a striking combination of clarity and power but youthfully imploded today, with its sizable tannic structure currently keeping its intense dark fruit, floral and soil-driven mineral flavors under wraps. Most impressive today on the sappy, rising back end. Boasts compelling sweetness but this potentially great Musigny is dominated by its backbone in the early going.

The 2015 Musigny Grand Cru has a thoroughbred bouquet with ripe blackberry, briary, undergrowth and marine scents that blossom in the glass. The palate is supple in the mouth, perhaps less tensile than the Bonnes Mares albeit with superb depth and grip. You are almost on the verge of dismissing this Musigny, then it fans out in convincing fashion, with plenty of gusto and conviction, belatedly reminding you that this is one of the most revered vineyards in the world. Perhaps not as immediate as the Bonnes-Mares, nevertheless, this will turn out to be grandiose Musigny destined to be up there with the best.