2002 Corton Clos des Cortons

Good medium red with a hint of amber. Very dark aromas of blackberry, cassis, licorice and leather along with subtle notes of mushroom and underbrush, smells rather strenuously extracted. Then violety and vinous but quite dry and imploded, even a bit hard-edged, conveying a distinctly medicinal cast. There's a juiciness here but it's cut off on the back by tight tannins. This wine, too, struck me as a bit Cabernet-like, and unlikely to soften or expand with further bottle aging. Erwan Faiveley described 2002 as "a great vintage that we totally missed," owing to high yields and to the long macerations that were done that year "because the color was not coming." (13.7% alcohol, 3.4 pH, 3.9 g/l acidity, 44 h/h)