2018 Charmes Chambertin Tres Vieilles Vignes

The 2018 Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru Très Vieilles Vignes has turned out brilliantly, unfurling in the glass with scents of cherries, raspberries, licorice, orange rind, rich soil tones, woodsmoke and toasty new oak. Full-bodied, velvety and layered, it's elegantly muscular, with huge depth and concentration, powdery structuring tannin and a long, penetrating finish. This is a prodigious wine, built for the long haul, and it will demand patience to fulfill all its potential.

The 2018 Charmes-Chambertin Très Vieilles Vignes Grand Cru offers intense black and red fruit, woodland, black truffle and dried blood notes on the nose (almost like andouillette ). The palate is medium-bodied with a lot of new oak to be subsumed, which is always the way with this cuvée, but it is counterbalanced by fine acidity. Liberally sprinkled white pepper and clove toward the persistent finish. Excellent.