2015 DRC, Richebourg Grand Cru 1x75cl

JancisRobinson.com – 19

Very rich and round and opulent on the nose – Richebourg indeed! Almost wild and off the charts. Nothing restrained about this. Exuberant and sweet. Very forward on the nose but with enormous concentration under the fruit and marked very ripe tannins. Very much for the future. Aubert de Villaine describes it like a precious stone surrounded by its rocky casing [embedded gemstone]. ‘If you leave a glass for 15 days it won’t change because there is so much tannin’, according to Aubert.  [09/11/2016]

Anticipated maturity: 2035-2060

Robert Parker – 96

“The 2015 Richebourg Grand Cru is very good indeed, offering up a pure and surprisingly expressive nose of strawberry, dried rose, plum preserve, roast squab, raw cocoa and incipient rich soil tones, framed by some nutty new oak. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, multidimensional and rich, sweet fruit playing in counterpoint with sapid, savory nuance. This Richebourg is denser at the core and less expansive than the corresponding Romanée-St-Vivant, and though the grain of its tannins is similar, their impact is more assertive and muscular. Cropped at 24 hectoliters per hectare and harvested September 8 and 9.” [28/02/2018]

Anticipated maturity: 2025-2050

Vinous – 96+

Healthy dark red. Very ripe, highly complex aromas and flavors of raspberry, smoky soil tones, dried flowers and musky mocha and coffee. At once utterly seamless and youthfully imploded in the middle palate, this wine initially impressed for its energy and thrust, then gained in pliancy and sweetness with time in the glass. Still, this is a more masculine style than the RSV, finishing backward and penetrating, with its powerful tannins currently cutting off the fruit. A bit uncompromising in the early going but has the stuffing to give it great potential for a glorious and extended evolution in bottle. [Stephen Tanzer, 02/01/2018]

Anticipated maturity: 2030-2047

Burghound – 97

Subtle wood spice, violet, lavender, cassis, plum, tea and warm earth aromas combine to introduce incredibly rich, full-bodied, gorgeously complex and mouth coating flavors that possess near-perfect balance on the overtly powerful, sappy and explosively persistent mineral-driven finish. This is very firmly structured yet two important aspects render this entirely civilized: 1) the tannins are unusually fine-grained, and 2) there is so much dry extract present on the mid-palate that the backend does not possess its usual level of youthful austerity. Like the Romanée St. Vivant, this is textbook Riche built to last for decades. [15/01/2018]