2011 Chambolle Musigny La Combe d'Orvaux

The 2011 Chambolle-Musigny Combe d’Orveau has a sweet, generous bouquet with touches of confectionary shop informing the red fruit. The palate is medium-bodied with a supple opening: clean red berries, citrus lemon with a slightly abrupt but balanced finish. Fine. Drink now-2017. I have long admired the wines of Anne Gros where I have been visiting since the late 1990s, before I ever put pen to paper, so to speak. She has always been a typical Burgundian, preferring to stay in and around Vosne with her husband, Jean-Paul Tollot, and their three children. Years ago, she spoke of her dislike of travelling abroad. But Burgundy has changed and become more international. Anne has changed too, since she was in Hong Kong when I came by, so it was her daughter Julie who guided me through the wines-having just started working with her mother in recent months. Some commentators have criticized Anne’s wines for leaning too far toward new oak, though I myself have found them to handle the wood and absorb it well once the wines are allowed to age. But I have to confess, I did find the use of 100% new oak suppressed and occasionally overwhelmed the fruit in these 2011s. The usual exuberance may have been diminished by bottle shock, but I worry that some of these wines did not show the requisite weight of fruit to handle that amount of oak. It is nothing to do with the winemaking, but rather the limitations imposed by the growing season. Importer: Atherton Wine Imports; www.awiwine.com

Palish red. Pretty aromas of red cherry and raspberry, with a hint of reduction. Juicy and tactile in the mouth, with strong saline minerality complicating the red berry and soil flavors. Sharply chiseled village wine with a persistent, lightly salty finish that stimulates the salivary glands. This is about 12.6% alcohol right now, following what Anne Gros said was light chaptalization. It will be dangerously easy to drink. (Incidentally, Gros has a terrific Bourgogne in the making in 2011: sappy, precise and serious, with lovely perfume and good underlying structure. As she did not have a tank of the right size, this wine was still in barrel in November.)

Rich nose. Very confident, fruity and fresh. Not yet much subtlety but lots of material and stuffing here. A little harsh on the finish. (JR)