Frankly, I’ve little experience of recent Grivots, so this will be interesting: Deep colour. Dense but not at all clunky red fruit – a little tight but nothing ungainly – slowly building some higher tones, rounding out to be quite lithe and not a bit jammy – a good 2003 nose. Mouth-filling though also a little mouth-puckering from the tannin, yet the acidity is not bad. Just a little mouth-watering which combined with the tannin that clings to your gums makes this quite long – incredibly young though. Not a bit of roasted fruit and showing enough energy on the palate. Clearly this needs lots of cellar time but it’s a very successful wine for the vintage – well done Etienne!

A beautiful ruby colour when it catches the sun. Roasted raspberry nose, just a trace of spice too. Neither the concentration nor tannin of Grivot’s 1995 VR Bossières, but this is very smooth with medium concentrated fruit. The palate was also very dry – but became more friendly with time. Almost good today, but I think much better in 2 or 3 years time.