2012 Beaune Clos des Mouches Blanc

Medium yellow. Very sexy scents of ripe stone fruits, minerals, clove and menthol, plus a suggestion of redcurrant and a Batard-like toasty nuance. Large-scaled, plush and powerful but also quite fine-grained, with salty minerality and a repeating menthol element carrying through to a palate-staining finish. There's lovely supporting acidity here for such a rich, ripe wine. A touch of sweetness gives this complex, chewy premier cru some early appeal but there's much more to come here. (I should note that my first bottle showed a deeper yellow color. It was sweet and silky but displayed more evolved notes of ripe apricot, marzipan and white chocolate, as well as a balsamic element, almost certainly due to a bad cork or cork seal. Véronique Drouhin admitted that her family had some cork problems in 2012.) (11 h/h; 3.3 pH; 3.95 g/l acidity)

(just 21 barrels were produced in 2012, the equivalent of a mere 6 hectoliters per hectare; but production was even lower in 2013, at 10 to 12 barrels): Captivating soil-driven aromas of iodiney minerality, white pepper, smoke and stones. Wonderfully intense and powerful, showing a texture of liquid silk to its lemon and crushed stone flavors. Boasts an uncanny blend of precision and richness and outstanding inner-mouth tension. This almost freakishly concentrated wine appears to have the balance for a long and eventful evolution in bottle and may ultimately merit an even higher rating.