2015 Corton Pougets

(13.6% alcohol; 3.5 pH; 38 hectoliters per hectare produced): Bright medium red. Wonderfully pure, inviting nose combines strawberry, raspberry, rose petal, spices, white pepper and blood orange: I might have picked this essence of Burgundy as a Chambolle-Musigny! Plush, silky and fine-grained but tactile and substantial as well, boasting terrific energy for its vintage. (The vines benefited from the cooler temperatures and well-timed rainfall in August, which enable the wine to retain freshness, noted Frédéric Barnier.) The wine's very primary red berry, spice and floral flavors display seductive sweetness but a strong element of saline minerality accentuates the overall dry impression. A great wine in the making, showing an almost peppery vibrancy today; I would not be surprised if this shut down in the bottle in the near future.

Bright medium red. Deeply spicy perfume of raspberry, red cherry, cranberry, clove, smoke and minerals. At once plush and light on its feet, with savory minerality and complex earth tones adding interest to the medicinal black cherry, licorice and spice flavors. A serious vin de garde in the making, finishing with terrific reserve but also uncanny floral lift and grip for this very ripe vintage. The tannins are refined and harmonious. I suspect this very suave, sneakily concentrated wine will age slowly and gracefully. But even today it communicates a strong terroir quality.