Perrot MinotChambertin Grand Cru Vieilles Vignes 2014

Like the Clos de Bèze bottling, this is made with fruit purchased from Pierre Damoy (although Christophe Perrot-Minot decides on the picking date). Mint, blood orange, tobacco spice, dense fruit, bright acidity and firm, yet fine-grained tannins. A symphony in a bottle. 2022-32

Healthy full red. Much darker and cooler on the nose and palate than the Clos de Bèze, offering slightly stunted aromas of black cherry, chocolate, menthol, pepper, licorice and minerals. The biggest, most powerful and most brooding of these 2014s by far but still with a remarkably smooth texture and noble tannins that spread out to saturate the mouth. Not showing the fireworks--or the delicacy--of the Clos de Bèze right now, as its menthol and mineral elements dominate and there's little easy sweetness in the early going. This extremely long wine will need extended aging. The crop level was just 25 hectoliters per hectare, the same yield produced in 2014 by the 90-year-old Chapelle- Chambertin vines. (The Clos de Bèze yielded 30 hectoliters per hectare.)

The 2014 Chambertin Grand Cru seems to offer more fruit intensity on the nose compared to the 2014 Clos-de-Bèze, with cranberry and fresh strawberry, and a touch of damp woodland in the background. It gains intensity in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied but with great substance and depth than the Clos de Bèze; there is a keen line of acidity cutting through the intense red berry fruit, and wonderful mineralité and tension on the finish. It just gradually gains in intensity before it fans out with a sense of confidence and entitlement, as befitting a Chambertin. This is a superb wine.

Here the cool and highly restrained nose is both more densely fruited and a bit more complex as well if a bit less elegant because like the Mazoyères this is clearly Gevrey in basic character. The spicy and overtly muscular big-bodied flavors display even more minerality on the lush but refined finish that is seriously powerful and persistent. This is impressive because it possesses imposing size and weight yet the palate impression remains exquisitely well-balanced.