2015 Domaine Henri Boillot Pommard Les Rugiens 1er Cru

Good medium red Reticent but highly complex, soil-driven nose suggests redcurrant, iron, mocha, dried flowers and chimney smoke. Like liquid silk in the mouth, conveying an element of sappy concentration and thickness of texture that goes beyond the 2015 Volnays from this producer. Incredibly fine-grained for Rugiens, finishing very long, gripping and mineral-tinged, with a serious spine of tannins. An outstanding Rugiens in the making. This really provokes the salivary glands.

(30% vendange entier ; 50% new oak; the Boillots combined their fruit from the upper and lower portions of Rugiens for the vinification): Bright, full red. Minty high tones to the aromas of redcurrant, spices and rose petal. Penetrating and high-pitched, with vibrant flavors of redcurrant, iron and tobacco accented by mint and complicated by saline minerality. The intense, rising, palate-staining finish conveys an impression of power without being at all aggressive. No easy sweetness here but offers an uncommon blend of silkiness and energy. Guillaume Boillot noted that he normally finds Rugiens harder and more rustic than this wine.

Boillot's 2015 Pommard 1er Cru les Rugiens is excellent, offering up a reserved bouquet of red and black cherry, wild berries, rich soil, spice and venison. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, dense and concentrated, with a serious chassis of tannin which is almost completely evolved in a deep core of succulent fruit, only asserting itself on the finish. Along with the Clos Vougeot, this is the most manifestly built for the long haul of all Boillot's reds. Apr 2018, www.robertparker.com