1999 Charmes Chambertin Tres Vieilles Vignes
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Healthy dark red. Chambertin-like medicinal soil tones add another dimension to the pure, vibrant aromas of blackberry, blueberry, violet and licorice pastille. Utterly seamless, silky grand cru with magical retention of primary fruit for a wine that's now nearly 20 years of age. Pure, vibrant and sharply delineated, with its high-pitched yet sweet dark berry and violet flavors complicated by hints of leather and smoke, plus a faint candied quality. This beauty boasts a silky thickness of texture but its brisk acidity and powerful tannic spine are still keeping it a bit imploded in the middle palate: today it tastes like a much younger wine. Really beautiful balanced, with superb sappy, rising length. If you're tempted to taste this wine anytime soon, give it some time in a decanter. (14% alcohol; 3.4 pH; 40 h/h)
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Average Score
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
Pierre Rovani
More reviews and scores
Produced from extremely old vines, as its name suggests (65% of this parcel dates back to 1881), the 1999 Charmes-Chambertin Tres Vieilles Vignes is dark ruby-colored. Bacon, jammy black cherries, and candied blackberries can be found in its aromatics. This huge, medium to full-bodied wine is extraordinarily concentrated, powerful, and chewy-textured. Its black fruit, licorice, asphalt, and cherry flavors are extremely expressive and last throughout its unbelievably long, thick, and sweet finish. Drink this magnificent wine between 2007 and 2016+. Importers: Wines of France, Alain Junguenet Selections, Mountainside, NJ; tel. (908) 654-6173, and Atherton Wine Imports, Atherton, CA; tel. (650) 328-6639.