2015 Corton Bressandes

The 2015 Corton-Bressandes Grand Cru is superb, soaring from the glass with a stunningly complex bouquet of cassis, plums, tar, black truffle, dark chocolate and rich spices. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, powerful and dramatic, with a lavish, layered attack; a massively deep, concentrated and multidimensional mid-palate; and an ample chassis of fine-grained, velvety tannins that assert themselves on the youthfully chewy finish. This Corton-Bressandes' sheer scale will demand a decade of cellaring, but this wine exemplifies just what was possible on the hill of Corton in the 2015 vintage.

(bottled in June of 2017): Healthy bright ruby-red. Blacker and tighter on the nose than the Savigny-lès-Beaune Les Lavières, conveying a hint of torrefaction. Quite youthfully imploded and backward, with its medicinal kirsch and dark chocolate flavors showing terrific depth of texture but little early sweetness. Today this very dense wine is dominated by its huge toothdusting tannins. It doesn't offer the fruit element of the 2016 in the early going and will require serious cellaring.

More life and zest than the Corton-Les Maréchaudes 2015. Satisfying and good balance between fruit, acidity and structure. (JR)