Deep colour. There’s deeply toasty and creamy black fruit on the nose. Primary, painfully intense fruit with excellent acidity and buried tannins. Excellent but very hard to drink right now – I’d guess that you need another 7 or 8 years before this wine starts to bloom – but bloom it will. Very impressive wine.
Deep cherry red colour. Wow! the nose is a rather fine, pronounced and concentrated cherry cordial, perhaps just a little cream too. Really good concentration with fresh, well balanced acidity and very smooth and well covered tannins. The finish is just a little tart but with pretty good length. Super aromatics here – normally I buy Castagnier’s Clos de la Roche, but it seems that I also need space for the Charmes from 1999!
Just a little deeper coloured than the des Varoilles Gevrey 1er. There’s a little toasty oak but this is very well done as despite the young age, it already provides a good cocoa topping to the dark cherry fruit. The palate without showing great weight manages to produce an intense young fruit profile with well balanced acidity and buried tannins. Starting to close up a little but a wine worth following.
Deep cherry red colour. Pure cherry but not the penetrating cordial nose of the ‘Charmes’ Much more subdued in character too despite it’s concentration. Good acidity and more noticeable tannic structure – very smooth mind! So, equally concentrated but a little more austere in presentation. A perfectly good, though not an outstanding example.
Deeply coloured cherry red, right to the rim. The nose has good depth with a laser-like focus of black cherry running through the middle, dried fruits also in evidence. Superb intensity on the palate – this is special. The fruit just keeps on going through the achingly long finish. Perfect acidity and tannins that you hardly notice – buy every bottle that you can find!
Medium ruby red. The nose starts a little disjointed – bit of oak here, a little cherry there. Slowly the high toned fruit mix melds with the (now fading) creamy oak – I really think that this could me mistaken for a white wine if you didn’t see the colour! Perfect acidity and medium strength, fine tannin. The palate isn’t fat, but there’s a nice persistence to the creamy fruit. This is a super, balanced, very elegant and drinkable wine – I’d expect a little more of everything from a top Grands Echézeaux, but I’m not sure it would provide more enjoyment!
Similar colour to the 2000. The nose is quite reserved but similar style to how the 2000 develops. The palate shows perfectly delineated red fruits with fine acidity. There’s more than enough concentration to buffer the tannins. Despite the reserved presentation this is a 1999 that you could drink today but that would be such a waste. The flavours linger beautifully
Nightmare – bottle 1 – tainted as tainted can be, a big shame. Bottle 2 – medium-plus ruby red, still cherry at the rim. The nose starts in an almost syrah way, slowly unknitting to give a little woodspice then really dense black cherry that slowly becomes more red and shows a little coffee. There’s still a little grain from the wood, but this is one full-on wine with incredible length – you really can taste it minutes later. The palate has fine tannins, good acidity and super-intense fruit, shaded towards black. This is a wine that’s a big black shadow of its future self and despite commendable depth doesn’t yet shout ‘I’m a great wine’, but wait another 10 years and things might be starting to get very interesting.
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