2012 Richebourg

Tasted blind at the annual "Burgfest" tasting in Beaune. The 2012 Richebourg Grand Cru from Domaine Jean Grivot has a slight reduction on the nose, but underneath there is plenty of intense black and red fruit, touch of dried blood and black pudding. It does repay several minutes aeration, gaining more and more clarity. The palate is medium-bodied with dry tannin, moderate balance but it attenuates slightly towards the finish. There is a regal grand cru here but it is obdurate and backward - which is excusable for this vineyard. This is simply magnificent to its very core.

(the crop level was just 18 hectoliters per hectare): Bright dark red. Slightly reduced aromas of raspberry, garrigue and earth, plus a petrolly, flinty nuance. Voluptuous and layered but very reduced today (Grivot refered to it as "incomprehensible"), showing profound depth and palate-saturating texture but barely hinting at its incipient complexity today. Also displays great force and length but today it's dominated by an element of hydrocarbons. Will almost certainly merit a higher score with 10 to 15 years of cellaring.

Grivot made an assemblage of the three barrels in my glass. Bright, deep red. Slightly reduced aromas of purple fruits, purple flowers and crushed rock. Wonderfully fine-grained but extremely backward, showing little in the way of easy sweetness today. In fact, this utterly primary wine is locked up tight and dominated by its structure. Most impressive right now on its slowly building, extremely intense finish, which displays outstanding precision and perfume. This will need a good decade in the cellar to express itself. "But more generous wines like the Bossieres, Boudots and even Echezeaux will be great in two years with a piece of beef," says Grivot.