2016 Mazis Chambertin

(aging in 20% new oak--essentially the barrels the estate didn't need for their frost-reduced Chambertin): Good dark red. Wild, energetic aromas of raspberry and game birds. A step up in sweetness over the Charmes on entry, then quite firm and minerally in the middle palate, with harmonious acidity giving this intense wine very good definition. Finishes classically dry, serious and long, with an element of youthful austerity.

The 2016 Chambertin-Clos de Bèze Grand Cru is showing brilliantly from bottle, unwinding with aeration to reveal a deep and brooding bouquet of plums, cassis and cherries mingled with notions of grilled meats, ceps, peonies and iodine. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, textural and enveloping, with a muscular chassis of ripe tannin that's cloaked in a core of vibrant and concentrated fruit, concluding with a long and thrillingly carnal finish. It will be fascinating to compare this with the qualitatively similar but stylistically very different 2015 vintage when both wines have 20 years on the clock.