The 2010 Clos St. Denis is downright explosive from the first taste. An exotic melange of dark cherries plums minerals and cloves are all supported by insistent underlying minerality. The wine continues to grow in the glass as layers of flavor fill out its broad-shouldered frame nicely. Blackberries cassis menthol and licorice flow through to the textured finish. This is a breathtaking effort. It is also a wine for the very patient. Anticipated maturity: 2025-2045.

This is more floral still with a pungent violet and rose character to the very fresh spice and earth-inflected fresh berry fruit suffused nose. There is beautiful subtlety to the detailed refined and admirably pure middle weight flavors that possess a velvety even plush mouth feel all wrapped in a perfectly balanced and harmonious finish. This is really lovely stuff indeed it's textbook Clos St. Denis.

The 2010 Clos Saint-Denis Grand Cru offers plenty of dark berry fruit, yet there is more delineation and freshness compared directly with the Mazis from Dugat-Py that is poured in tandem. The palate is beautifully poised with a firm backbone indicative more of Clos Saint-Denis than Clos de la Roche. Plenty of black fruit, precise, a bit "blocky" at first, but it doesn't take much aeration before it develops the clarity and precision you expect from this renowned vineyard and producer. Maybe keep another couple of years? Tasted blind at the Wallace brothers' Xmas dinner. -- Neal Martin