2015 Clos St Denis

Bright red-ruby. Pungent aromas of black fruits, crushed stone and violet. Wonderfully dense and sweet for young Clos Saint-Denis, conveying superb concentration and density to its chocolatey fruit flavors. Seriously ripe, seamless and impressive, and easy to taste following the Chambertin, but does it have the inherent class of the Mazis? The black fruit flavors certainly possess enough energy to ensure a slow evolution in bottle.

A pure, elegant and cool nose is composed by the distilled essence of cassis, dark cherry, spice and sandalwood scents. There is a strikingly refined and sophisticated mouth feel to the medium-bodied and restrained flavors that deliver outstanding punch with absolutely no sense of weight on the gorgeously long and complex finish. This is a very classy effort and should amply reward mid to perhaps even longer-term cellaring. Dec 2016, www.burghound.com

The 2015 Clos Saint-Denis Grand Cru, the first vineyard that Philippe purchased back in 1983, includes 30% whole bunch fruit this year, and it took a few minutes to really unfold in the glass. Fortunately it repaid patience with attractive mulberry and blackberry scents infused with cold stone and blood orange notes that are very detailed. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin, crisp acidity, cohesive with a bold and structured, saline finish. I like the persistence here although it will need several years to really reach its drinking plateau. Dec 2016, www.robertparker.com