2015 Charmes Chambertin

(from vines in both Charmes and Mazoyères): Dark red-ruby. Inviting aromas of raspberry, minerals, smoked meat and dried rose, along with a cool licorice note. Juicy, intense wine with excellent definition and lovely inner-mouth floral lift. Still a bit youthfully medicinal but already conveys an attractive texture and a harmony of elements. Finishes juicy, spicy and quite long, with suave, fine-grained tannins and a repeating suggestion of medicinal reserve. Saouma was not the only producer I visited this fall who noted that Charmes-Chambertin has benefited substantially from global warming. "Not too long ago, Charmes typically had a greenness as well as underripe tannins," he said. (I will withhold early judgment on a 350-liter barrel of Griottes-Chambertin, which was fusel and extremely reduced, and still had some unconverted malic acidity.)