95+ As I noted in November, it was possible that I was underrating the wine a touch at the Salon de Gevrey tasting, as that sample was probably taken from a new barrel which would have been a bit more evolved in the cellar and more accessible for the tasting. Despite this wine only having been bottled two weeks before my visit, it was really showing brilliantly at the end of March, soaring from the glass in a superb bouquet of cassis, dark berries, grilled meat, classic Mazis dark minerality, woodsmoke, mustard seed, espresso and cedar. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, pure and rock solid at the core, with excellent focus and grip, ripe, substantial tannins, bright acids and outstanding complexity and focus on the very long and vibrant finish. A simply superb example of Mazis, the 2011 Harmand-Geoffroy will need a good decade in the cellar to start to stir and should prove to be a great example of the vintage.

Subtle but not invisible wood frames spicy, earthy and distinctly wild dark berry fruit aromas that also display a hint of herbal tea. The big-bodied, intense and quite firmly structured flavors possess really lovely intensity, all wrapped in a long, detailed and impressive persistent finish where touches of both austerity and rusticity appear. 2011 is a lighter but still impressively intense vintage for this wine that has leaned out somewhat since I last reviewed it. Note that lighter or not, it should still require between 9 and 12 years to peak.