2015 Romanee St Vivant

(13.2% natural alcohol, from vines picked at the end): Full ruby-red. Aromas of blackberry, cassis, licorice and spices convey a gamey wildness plus a whiff of adhesive tape that quickly dissipated. Densely packed and a bit high-toned, with no lack of acidity to the flavors of crushed blackberry and tropical dark chocolate. This very ripe but taut Romanée-Saint-Vivant, from 80-year-old vines that yielded 33 hectoliters per hectare in 2015, seems youthfully sullen today and its dusty tannins are a bit tough in the early going. It will need longer in barrel--not to mention considerable time in bottle--to absorb some of its baby fat and show itself more clearly. Will it eventually reveal the clarity and class for greatness?

(from vines planted in 1922). Very firm reduction. As would be reasonably expected, the middle weight flavors possess a much finer mouth feel compared to that of the Clos de Vougeot with a silky mid-palate yet in the same fashion as the Vosne-Romanée Beaux Monts, the hugely long finish is borderline chewy. There is no doubting the quality of the underlying material and the length here is genuinely superb but it would be fair to observe that this is a very robust RSV. Dec 2016, www.burghound.com