Chambertin Clos de Bèze, Domaine Armand Rousseau 2014

A brilliantly discreet spicy nose consists of sandalwood, essence of black cherry liqueur, violets and a hint of the sauvage. There is seriously good size, weight and power to the imposingly scaled flavors that display almost painful intensity on the driving, explosively long and very firmly structured finish where a pleasing bead of minerality appears which helps to add lift to the finish. This is powerful and presently quite compact yet my sense is that despite being very tightly wound today, it should progressively unfold such that in 7 to 8 years, it may be sufficiently civilized to enjoy if you don't wish to wait for its full maturity.

In 2014 it's as though the Clos de Bèze and Chambertin have switched places in the sense that this is less expressive, super powerful and appears to be the more structured of the two as well. A discreetly spicy nose consists of sandalwood, essence of black cherry liqueur, violets and a hint of the sauvage. There is seriously good size, weight and power to the imposingly scaled flavors that display almost painful intensity on the driving, explosively long and very firmly structured finish. Unlike most vintages this is actually the harder of the two wines to read today though everything appears to be in place to allow this to age brilliantly.