Vinous (94)

The NV Extra Brut Grand Cru Complantée emerges from a parcel in Avize interplanted with Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, Pinot Blanc, Arbane, Petit Meslier and Chardonnay. Exotic and beguiling in the glass, the Complantée is absolutely gorgeous. Kirsch, red plum, rose petal and spice give the wine striking aromatic intensity and lovely inner perfume. The red grapes seem especially expressive in this release. The Complantée is not an obvious wine, rather it is a Champagne of translucent finesse. This release is a blend of equal parts 2017 and 2016, vinified in neutral oak. Dosage is 5 grams per liter. Disgorged: April, 2020.

Jasper Morris Inside Burgundy (94-97)

Clear bright pale colour. Stones and citrus are immediately apparent. Very fine and very typical. There is a liveliness to this wine after the more majestic style of the -Montrachet grands crus. Even so, the middle of the palate fills out gloriously and there is an exceptionally long finish, some yellow fruits including ripe citrus. Very long and very fine.

Jancis Robinson (17+)

50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 46% Merlot, 4% Petit Verdot. Cask sample. Very much in the Alter Ego mould – lively, fruit-driven with that vineyard-fresh feel but with a little more structure than previous years. Pure and appetising but will age. (JL) 13.7%

James Suckling (99-100)

This shows the purity of Angelus. I have never tasted a wine from here with such incredible clarity. Full body, full fruit and full beauty. Super silky tannins. A joy to taste. Makes you want to drink it. 62% merlot and 38% cabernet franc.

Jasper Morris Inside Burgundy (95-98)

A bright fresh mid purple. The bouquet is superb, in a really lush and almost creamy red berry fruit, not as wild as some until a little savoury touch at the finish. Complex, a fine weave to the texture, with pure red berry fruit coming out at the finish. Despite its location I tend to think of Bonnes Mares as a Morey style Grand Cru, but you can certainly see the touch of Chambolle in this. Drink from 2032-2040. Tasted: November 2023.

Jasper Morris Inside Burgundy (92-95)

Tressage here, no tractor for years so as to avoid compacting the very light soil. One barrel, magnums only. Mid ruby with clearly a riper more perfumed style of fruit. Even a slight plum note to the perfume, then stonier and more saline on the palate. The fruit leaves a sweet impression in the mouth. Super fruit concentration behind. Drink from 2030-2036. Tasted: November 2023.

Vinous (93-95)

The 2022 Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru, one of the last to be picked over three different passes, has a plush and expressive bouquet with dark cherries, raspberry coulis and light violet petal aromas that recede and reveal orange rind and yuzu scents. The palate is medium-bodied with firm grip on the entry. It’s a solid Charmes-Chambertin that is Mazoyères in style because, well, that's where it's from! A serious Charmes-Chambertin that will age well in bottle.

Jasper Morris Inside Burgundy (96-98)

5 Star Wine. A glowing mid crimson purple. The bouquet is enchanting with the white pepper and rose petal lift from the whole bunches, a little under half. Perfectly judged ripeness. The wine is beautifully discreet on the palate, but it is all there. Not super concentrated but detailed, precise and entirely in balance. Note: one of the ways in which Cyprien ensures a first class result with his Clos de la Roche is by marking up underperforming vines and deselecting their fruit at the picking stage. Drink from 2032-2040. Tasted: November 2023.

Vinous (96-98)

The 2022 Clos Saint-Denis Grand Cru has darker fruit on the nose than the Clos de la Roche: blackberry and bilberry, crushed violet, and plenty of forest floor commingling with light granitic scents. The terroir really shines through here. The palate is medium-bodied with filigree tannins, very harmonious with a cashmere texture. There’s impressive weight on the finish with outstanding tension. I thought the 2021 was a knockout last year… This is, too.

Jasper Morris Inside Burgundy (94-97)

5 Star Wine. Mid purple in colour. A sublime elegance to the nose, graceful refined yet still full of energy. Floral on top of ripe red berries. Perfectly judged ripeness. There is so much intensity here yet produced with a really fine hand, very persistent indeed, and seemingly effortless. The refined tannins are entirely hidden. Drink from 2032-2040. Tasted: November 2023.

Vinous (93-95)

The 2022 Morey-Saint-Denis Les Ruchots 1er Cru has a classic Morey-Saint-Denis bouquet with mineral-driven black fruit and touches of melted tar and tobacco. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins, well-balanced and grippy, with perhaps the most saline finish amongst Arlaud's Morey Premier Crus. This will need more time than the Aux Chesaux, but it will be worth the wait.

Vinous (97)

Very good deep red. Closer to the CSJ than to the CDB on the nose, offering terrific pungent lift to the aromas of black raspberry, rose petal and blood orange. Wonderfully sappy and pure, without any impression of weightiness to its saline flavors of raspberry, spices and white pepper. Utterly fine-grained, silky wine with great finesse. One of the longest, most palate-saturating wines of this vintage, finishing with noble tannins and taste bud-titilllating perfume. Perfectly balanced also but built for a glorious evolution in bottle. It would be a shame to open this bottle too soon.

Vinous (92-94)

The 2019 Gevrey-Chambertin Lavaux Saint-Jacques 1er Cru has wonderful transparency on the nose of red currant and wild strawberry, plus glimpses of orange blossom and rose petal. The palate is medium-bodied with sappy red fruit, lightly spiced and quite peppery in the mouth. Fine grip and length. This is a lovely Lavaux that will be difficult to resist in its youth.

James Suckling (96)

Shows beautiful, ripe cabernet aromas with currants, plums, meat and smoke. Flowers, too. Full body, deep and ripe fruit and exquisite, ripe tannins. Flavorful finish. Tight right now, but shows excellent potential. Best ever. Try after 2024.

James Suckling (94-95)

This is classically structured with a wonderful finish of extremely polished tannins and an ultra long finish. So much blackcurrant, spice and cedar. Seamless. 70% cabernet sauvignon and 26% merlot, the rest cabernet franc and petit verdot.

Jeb Dunnuck (98)

The finest wine I've tasted from this estate, the 2020 Château Bellefont-Belcier is an incredibly gorgeous blend of 70% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Franc, and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. Deep ruby/purple-hued, it offers a great nose of cassis, ripe black cherries, camphor, dried flowers, cedar, and forest floor. Bringing gorgeous richness, it nevertheless stays flawlessly balanced, with ultra-fine tannins and a great finish. The purity of fruit here is just about off the charts. While it already offers pleasure, it's going to benefit from short-term cellaring and have 20-25 years of prime drinking. This estate uses a five-day cold soak and fermentation, all in concrete, spanning 25 days. Malolactic fermentation occurs in barrel (four months on lees), and the wine spends 18 months in 30% new French oak, with the balance in once- and twice-used barrels. Yields in 2020 were also reasonable at 34 hectoliters per hectare.

James Suckling (95-96)

Very soft and polished with beautiful tannins that are poised and beautiful. It’s medium-to full-bodied and gorgeously proportioned. Ready for even more polishing.

Wine Advocate (92-94)

The 2022 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru La Maltroie is another one of the standouts in the range, offering up aromas of citrus zest, mint, crisp green apple, white flowers and freshly baked bread, followed by a medium to full-bodied, satiny and fleshy palate that's suave, seamless and penetrating.

Matthew Jukes (20+)

08NF was made from 83% Grands Crus and 17% de Premiers Crus: 60% Pinot Noir from the Premiers and Grands Crus of the Montagne de Reims and the Grande Vallée de la Marne (Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, Aÿ, Ambonnay, Bouzy, Verzenay et Verzy); 40% Chardonnay from the Côte des Blancs (Mesnil, Chouilly, Cramant, Vertus); 17% of the wines were vinified in oak barrels, and it was aged on its lees for 150 months; The dosage is 2.9 g/l, and it was disgorged in January 2022. This super-deep wine dwells low in the glass with weight and depth of delivery that is completely unhurried. Vinous, powerful and with a full spectrum of fruit and patisserie, it is remarkable just how little citrus and herb there is on the front end of this staggeringly impressive wine. It is more layered and exotic than any current release Champagne I can think of, and then when it seems as though the scene is set, everything changes instantly. The palate drops about three gears revealing arresting zestiness and tanginess that completely engulfs the senses. I learned that this cuvée’s release was delayed by nearly two years because the back end was so twitchy, nervy and excitable. As it turns out, the Billecart gurus made the right call here – this is an electrifying wine, and the finish shows that the potential here is incredible. I am lucky enough to have tasted the 1959 and the 1961 Billecart-Salmon vintage wines, among others, and the DNA and detail in this 2008 are near-identical. While the top half of this wine is showy, flamboyant and seductive, the lower half is firm, chiselled, rigid and breath-taking.

Matthew Jukes (19+)

The latest release of R.D. – Bollinger’s iconic ‘Recently Disgorged or Récemment Dégorgé’ wine is something completely out of the ordinary. My one-word description for this sensational wine is ‘controlled’. I say this because what I adore about every single vintage of R.D. which I have tasted (and there have been many – see below) is the seeming lack of control in every sip. R.D. should be and usually is an absurdly decadent and unpredictable wine, firing off ostentatious flavour and extraordinary detail in every direction. This is why I love it so much and also why I only open it on very special occasions! What is remarkable about this particular vintage is its restraint and levity coupled with the extraordinary length of finish. After 14 years on lees, this wine is as power-packed and energised as it could possibly be and with the extra edge and vivacity coming from a fulsome percentage of Verzenay Pinot fruit (29%) added to the usual heartbeat coming from the Aÿ Pinot core (26%) this is a dynamic red fruit-dominant cocktail. The overall blend is 70% Pinot Noir and 30% Chardonnay coming from 14 Crus with 91% Grands Crus in this vintage. The dosage is a keen 3 grams per litre and all disgorgement is done by hand, as usual. But in 2007 the result is atypical, enchanting, surprisingly refreshing and amazingly delicious. I opened this bottle at 11.00 am and did not stopper it for a full 12 hours. I even sneaked half a glass with a chicken curry at supper time and it worked like a dream. This is not a massive firework of a wine that explodes gloriously and then is gone. Instead, it is a blazing torch of flavour with phenomenal persistence and balance and this makes it unmissable in every serious Champagne lover’s cellar.

Vinous (100)

From the very beginning, the 2015 Canon has made an eloquent case for itself as one of the wines of the vintage. Multiple tastings from bottle only confirm what several early tastings hinted at: the 2015 Canon is simply extraordinary in every way. Sumptuous and exotic, with no hard edges and exceptional balance, the 2015 grabs hold of all the senses and never lets up. A rush of red fruit intermingled with floral notes, spice and smoke notes effortlessly runs up the wine's vertical structure as the 2015 thrills with every twist and turn. The 2015 Canon is a rare wine that is both hedonistic and intellectual - well, maybe it is a bit more hedonistic-leaning. It doesn't matter. Don't miss it. This 2015 is masterpiece from General Manager Nicolas Auderbert and his team at Canon.

Jeb Dunnuck (97)

I've loved every vintage of this cuvée and the 2018 Saint Joseph Le Clos is undoubtedly with the best of them. Incredibly complex notes of black raspberries, flowers, lavender, bouquet garni, and a terrific sense of elegance all emerge from the glass, and this full-bodied beauty has a silky, elegant texture, great tannins, and one seriously lengthy finish. It shows more spice and meaty nuances with time in the glass and this is more Hermitage than your classic Saint Joseph. Enjoy bottles any time over the coming 20 years.

Wine Spectator (96)

A textbook blanc de blancs in a relatively opulent style, with ample grilled nut, brioche and spice character alongside classic flavors of poached apricot, kumquat, oyster shell and lemon blossom. This rich profile is well-defined by racy acidity, sleek and well-cut, driving the long, lacy finish. A beauty. Drink now through 2035. Tasted twice, with consistent notes. 4,500 cases made, 185 cases imported.

The Wine Independent (100)

The 1982 Chevel Blanc has a medium garnet-brick color and springs from the glass with scents of kirsch, dried cranberries, and pencil shavings, leading to hints of rose oil, rare steak, and crushed rocks. The medium-bodied palate is packed with mature red fruit and earthy layers, textured with satiny tannins and delivering seamless acidity, finishing on a long-lingering mocha note. Still very youthful, this was clearly a very good bottle, coming directly from the Chateau. The yields in 1982 for Cheval Blanc were a whopping 55 hl/ha, according to Pierre Lurton.

The Wine Cellar Insider (100)

You could not ask for more in a bottle. The perfume with its blend of spices, espresso, flowers, smoke, cocoa, tobacco, wild cherries, plums, and ash instantly grabs your focus. On the palate, the wine is pure silk and velvet, which caresses you with its layers of vibrant, earthy, pure, red, and black fruits. The concentrated finish is long, deep, intense, and sensuous, gaining in opulence in the glass.

The Wine Independent (100)

The 2019 Cheval Blanc is a blend of 58% Merlot, 34% Cabernet Franc, and 8% Cabernet Sauvignon. 41 out of 53 blocks have had a part to play this year, representing 10 different soil types. The Grand Vin in 2019 represents 82% of production. Deep purple-black in color, it needs a lot of swirling to shake loose fragrant scents of Indian spice, potpourri, star anise, and cardamom, over a core of preserved plums, boysenberries, and charcoal with touches of wood smoke and cracked black pepper. Full-bodied, rich and immediately impactful in the mouth, the layered nuances slowly expand, beautifully framed by ripe, rounded tannins and seamless freshness, finishing with cascading savory and earth flavors and lots of lingering mineral notes.

The Wine Cellar Insider (98)

Flowers are the first thing you notice before discovering all the spice, cloves, kirsch, and dark cherries on the nose. On the palate, the wine is silky, elegant, fresh, supple, and refined. The kirsch shows a beautiful purity and spicy character, along with its refined tannins and peppery strawberries that kick in at the end of the finish. The wine is a blend of 55% Grenache, 30% Mourvedre, and 10% Syrah with the remaining 5% consisting of various, allowable grape varieties. The grapes are as always 100% destemmed. The production is quite low this year at only 25 hectoliters per hectare. The wine is 15.2% ABV, but you do not sense any heat.

Tim Atkin MW (96)

All destemmed, aged for 18 months in demi-muids. Remarkable aromatic finesse already, boding well for the future; it majors on rich, ripe fruit rather than oak. Very full and rounded, but full of life and energy, this is buzzing with vitality. It has fresh, lip-smacking acidity and tannin, and a very long finish. A fantastic balance between freshness, concentration and pure, regal Hermitage fruit. Whatever style of Hermitage you like, this shouldn’t disappoint - it has depth and power as well as finesse. Very impressive, complete wine.

The Wine Independent (100)

Deep garnet in color, the 2016 Cos d'Estournel is quite closed to start, requiring a lot of coaxing to bring out profound notions of creme de cassis, wild blueberries, black cherry compote, and rose oil, leading to suggestions of Indian spices, crushed rocks, and dried lavender. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is both opulent and energetic, revealing loads of perfumed black fruit layers and a plush, polished texture, finishing with epic length and depth.