Deep dark ruby. Multifaceted bouquet of black raspberry and red cherry complemented by hints of exotic spices. Fresh and juicy on the attack with dark red fruit and a sweet kiss of red berries showing on a succulent, lush palate. Nicely refined character with significant purity and round tannins. Sourced from a 65 year old 5 hectare parcel growing above the windmill in sandy, granitic soils. Fermented 25% whole cluster and matured 12 months in almost all used oak followed by 6 months in stainless steel.

Generous amounts of menthol and oak stop just short of fighting with the more complex aromas that offer up plenty of pepper, spice and baked plum. The supple, round and relatively easy-going middle weight flavors possess an expansive mid-palate that tightens up immediately on the tightly wound finish that makes clear that this will need at least some patience first. With that said, this is not so structured that it couldn’t be approached with pleasure in a few years.

This dense, smoothly textured, single-vineyard wine is packed with tannins as well as concentrated blackberry fruits. Its richness, allied to ripeness, comes with a juicy aftertaste. Drink from 2022.

The 11 acres of 45-year-old vines at Les Vérillats face east into the morning sun, sited at the top of a mass of granite that might as well have layered itself into the wine. This 2016 is all about rock, especially in the powerful tannins, their tension and mineral austerity relieved by bright, tart cherry flavor and deeper blue-fruit tones. It’s youthful and dynamic, showing little influence of the oak barrels in which it aged, other than its preparedness for long aging in bottle.