Chapelle Chambertin, Cecile Tremblay 2010

Tremblay's 2010 Chapelle-Chambertin Grand Cru has now decisively overtaken the 2009. Unfurling in the glass with aromas of plums, licorice, exotic spices, rose petals, raw cocoa, forest floor and a discreet framing of new oak, it's full-bodied, layered and complete, with a deep core of fruit, lively acids and a concentrated, elegantly muscular profile. This is beginning to become approachable, but it still has considerable potential to improve with further bottle age.

An elegant and exceptionally pure nose of plum, stone and black cherry that also displays enough wood to notice gives way to wonderfully silky large-scaled flavors that benefit from the presence of a plenitude of dry extract that buffers the very firm tannic spine. This is a classic Chapelle from En Gémeaux with its intense minerality and rigid but not hard or aggressive tannins that underpin the mouth coating and hugely long finish. There is some wood that arrives right at the end but with the depth of material here it shouldn't take long for it to be successfully absorbed. This is a powerful but well-balanced and focused effort that will require 12 to 15 years of cellar time to reach its full apogee. Note: from a .38 ha parcel in En Gémeaux