(91 - 93) The 2016 Gevrey-Chambertin Vieilles Vignes was matured in 60% new oak with 60% whole bunch fruit. At the moment the new oak comes through strongly on the nose, more so than the village cru, although there is plenty of black cherry and bilberry fruit behind that and subsume the barrel ageing with time. This feels a little more opaque compared to the village cru at the moment. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin, layers on blackberry and crushed strawberry fruit laced with minerals that dovetail into a confit-like and quite saline finish. This is a dense "CS-J" that has great potential although it will require several years in bottle.- NM

An intensely floral-inflected if brooding nose combines with ripe and fresh aromas of dark berry fruit, earth and a whiff of the sauvage. There is better concentration to the medium-bodied flavors that are blessed with plenty of sappy dry extract along with a lovely minerality on the impressively long and well-balanced finish. This well-made and firmly structured effort virtually always boxes above its weight and 2016 is no exception.