Fine imperial purple, with wonderful ripe but balanced fruit suffusing the palate, a ball of ripe raspberry, just the right oaking, just enough acidity, tannins helping the structure but in low key, and all the persistence you could possibly hope for.

The 2019 Richebourg Grand Cru is very pure and focused, featuring strawberry, raspberry, orange peel and blood orange aromas; a hint of black truffle emerges with time. The palate is medium-bodied with firm but fine tannins. Wonderfully focused, spicier and more savory than the 2018, leading into a long finish, this is a superb Richebourg, even if at the moment I would like to see more of its aristocratic origin.- By Neal Martin Anne Gros herself was taking a well-earned post-harvest rest when I visited, though that is no problem these days as her daughter, Julie, is taking an increasingly prominent role in the running of the domaine in Vosne-Romanée. “There was a lower crop than in 2018,” she explained between darting from one stainless steel vat to another. “Each year we buy 30 new barrels. The normal total production would be around 120 barrels but in 2019 we had 100 barrels, then 80 barrels in 2020. We started picking on 17 September with the Bourgogne Rouge followed by the Grand Crus, the reds before the whites. All the wines are aged in around one-third new oak with all cuvées entirely de-stemmed. They will be bottled in December.” This is always a small portfolio crowned by their holding in Richebourg, though in 2019 the pair that caught my eye were an excellent Echézeaux that overtook the Clos Vougeot in its slipstream, also an over-performing Vosne-Romanée Les Barreaux that could pass as a Premier Cru. Occasionally I wanted a little more density and grip, though.

This is easily the most floral-suffused wine in the range with its notes of violet, lavender and rose petal on the highly spiced array of red berry aromas. There is lovely underlying tension to the more mineral-inflected if not especially dense flavors that also deliver focused power and fine length on the austere and nicely complex finale. This is perhaps a bit light compared to a classically styled Riche, but it certainly is classy and may well add body with time in bottle as the structure is present to allow it to age well over the next two decades.