2021, Domaine de la Vougeraie, CHARMES-CHAMBERTIN, 'Les Mazoyères', Grand Cru

From exceptionally old vines that are still productive.

A lower proportion of whole bunches this year, just cleaner fruit selected bunch by bunch. One of the darkest colours. A huge volume of fruit for the vintage on the palate, dark raspberry, almost some blacker notes, a light peppery touch, balanced, juicy and mouth-filling. A little mineral crunch too, to finish. **** 93-95 Jasper Morris MW.

The 2021 Charmes-Chambertin les Mazoyères Grand Cru comes from 114-year-old vines and is one of the few to contain stems this year, just 10%. It has an open-knit bouquet with red fruit, bay leaf and Earl Grey, nicely defined but certainly missing some power. The palate is clean and fresh with crunchy red fruit, slightly ferrous with a bit of dryness towards the finish. But there is a sense of complexity here, and I find this Charmes-Chambertin has plenty of character and sapidity. 91-93 Neal Martin, Vinous.

An elegant and really quite pretty nose is comprised mostly by the essence of wild red cherries, currant and just turned earth. There is both excellent volume and richness to the sappy and seductive textured flavours where the suppleness of the mid-palate contrasts somewhat with the slightly lean if persistent finale. Here too my projected range offers the benefit of the doubt that this will flesh out in time. 90-93 Burghound.