There is 35% less Chaignots than usual, but the cuvée is superb this year, bursting with aromas of creamy black fruits, incense, spice and grilled squab, framed by a deft touch of new oak. It is full-bodied, supple and expansive, its chassis of fine tannins entirely cloaked in vibrant fruit, with a long and penetrating finish. The quality of this bottling is one of Burgundy’s best-kept secrets. (Drink between 2026-2046)

Imperial purple robe. The bouquet is sumptuous, dismissive, classical, a huge bundle of fruit here without anything out of kilter. There is excellent acidity mixed in with the red fruit, this really sings all the way across the palate. Tasted: September 2019.

The 2016 Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Les Chaignots offers up a lovely bouquet of smoky cassis, wild berries, Asian spices, smoked meats and violets. On the palate, it's medium to full-bodied, ample and layered, with a velvety attack and a lavish core of vibrant fruit that entirely cloaks the wine's rich but fine-grained structuring tannins, concluding with a long and expansive finish. - WK

More subtle if still not invisible wood sets off the earthier and more evidently Nuits-like nose of red raspberry, dark cherry and whiffs of the sauvage. The more mineral-driven and sleekly muscular flavors possess a beguiling sense of underlying tension that continues onto the driving, super-intense and saline-inflected finish. This is definitely firmer and will need at least a few years of bottle age first. This too is very good.

The 2016 Nuits Saint-Georges Les Chaignots ler Cru has an impressive bouquet with well defined black cherry, raspberry, spicebox and rose petal aromas. Hints of Vervane tea emerge with time in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannin, well judged acidity, silky smooth in texture. I might have dialed down the level of new oak here, but that sheen that it lends to the texture makes it very seductive and it makes it feel very long. It just does not quite deliver the personality of the best wines from the appellation. Tasted blind at the 2016 Burgfest tasting. By Neal Martin on November 2015