2016 Hautes Cotes de Nuits

(from 45-year-old vines in Concoeur, in the hills behind Vosne-Romanée; there was no frost here in 2016 but vines in a small valley just 500 meters away were decimated, according to Tardy; 12.1% natural alcohol chaptalized to 12.8%): Healthy dark red. Ripe, sappy aromas of black cherry, black raspberry and licorice. A medium-bodied wine with sweet berry and cherry fruit flavors framed by a firm edge of acidity and complicated by a leathery nuance. Lovely vinosity here, with an acidulated red fruit character and fine, dusty tannins that suggest this wine will evolve slowly. Tardy told me that Domaine Berthaut-Gerbet and Domaine Arlaud own vines in the same windy, rocky, essentially flat site.

The 2016 Bourgogne Hautes Cotes de Nuits Cuvee Maelie Rouge, which had a little SO2 added a couple of weeks before my visit, offers blackberry and dark plum scents on the nose, forward and quite precocious for this genre of Burgundy. The palate is fleshy with plenty of rondeur, perhaps slightly higher in pH compared to other Hautes Côtes that I encountered during my travels, but quite sensual and generous with black cherries and blackcurrant on the finish.