Tasted blind at the Burgfest 2014 tasting, Drouhin's 2014 Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru is a wine that I might have underestimated from barrel, or perhaps it has just blossomed in bottle. It has a conservative bouquet that needs coaxing from the glass: red cherries, strawberry, scorched earth and just a touch of vanilla from the residual new oak waiting to be subsumed. The palate is medium-bodied with finely tuned tannin and bright red fruit, tensile and poised with a taut, quite linear finish that has class and refinement. This was one of the best in the flight of Clos de Vougeot, and I scored this even higher than Etienne Grivot's. Tasted September 2017.- NM

Here the surprisingly spicy nose consists of deft wood and ripe dark berries along with ample amounts of earth and sauvage hints. The full-bodied and overtly powerful flavors possess excellent size and weight as well as fine mid-palate concentration that help to buffer the very firm tannic spine that shapes the youthfully austere finish. Patience is very definitely required as this should age effortlessly for years.