The 1999 Chambolle-Musigny Les Cras 1er Cru has a beguiling bouquet with ripe red cherry, crushed strawberry and juniper scents, a touch of iron filings emerging with time in the glass. Fine mineralité and tension are on display here. The palate is very well balanced with fine-boned tannins, impressive depth and grip, a 1999 that harnesses the precocity of the season to its own advantage. This feels very persistent on the finish, a Les Cras that has a long life ahead of it. Outstanding. Tasted blind at the Roumier Les Cras vertical at Medlar, London. -- Neal Martin

The 1999 vintage of Roumier les Cras is still quite primary on both the nose and palate, but shows outstanding potential. The bouquet jumps from the glass in a classy and black fruity blend of black cherries, dark berries, espresso, bitter chocolate, fresh herbs, vinesmoke and a lovely base of soil. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and really shows great mid-palate concentration of fruit, with ripe tannins, sound acids and really impressive length and grip on the young, pure and still quite primary finish. A great wine in the making- all that is required is a bit more patience.

Tasted at the Roumier dinner at The Ledbury. The ’99 les Cras displays intensity on the nose that far out-reaches the ’98, with a darker fruit profile, perhaps broodier and more introspective at first, but unfurling over 30 minutes in the glass. The palate is crisp and well balanced with mulberry, a touch of boysenberry and black truffle, firm tannins with crushed stones on the finish that shows just a little hardness at the moment. I prefer the tension exuded by the ’98, whereas the ’99 seems static at the moment. I would afford this les Cras another couple of years in bottle to see if it “gets moving”. Drink 2012-2020. Tasted May 2010.

This is a clear notch up in quality with explosive black cherry fruits and a very intense inner core of sappy, dense and marvelously long pinot essence. Quintessential Chambolle with its finesse and delicacy but this is most assuredly not light and it finishes quite firmly and with solid minerality.

Underlying sweet-fruit character brings an extra dimension to this balanced, well-made, dark-colored and elegant red Burgundy. Inviting terroir, with lovely black fruit. Supple and ripe tannins, with a fresh and succulent finish. Best from 2003 through 2008. 690 cases made. — PM