This hails from vines planted in 1910 in the heart of the Clos. Its nose is wildly fragrant with peak-season cherries, heady spices, drying rose petals and smoky fireplace embers. The lightly bristly tannins offer good tension and the finish crackles with a pleasing dryness and mouthwatering freshness. This could use a decade at the very least. (CC)

There's no cuvée Hommage this year, so the fruit of the domaine's oldest vines all went into the 2021 Clos Vougeot Grand Cru Vieilles Vignes, a full-bodied, supple and velvety wine evocative of dark berries, sweet spices, peonies, orange rind and vine smoke. Seamless and layered, with impressive concentration and length, this is built to age with grace. The 2021 growing season hit the holdings of the Château de la Tour hard, and I myself witnessed the "mange bourgeon" caterpillars devouring buds that had survived the frost in the Clos Vougeot. The resulting wines, however, showed plenty of promise and are well worth consideration. As I've written before, organic and now biodynamic farming in the vineyards, vinification with—in red—appreciable percentages of whole clusters in the winery and long élevage in the cellars are the order of the day. (WK)

Note: from vines that were planted in 1910 Here too the wood treatment is prominent though not dominant on the slightly more deeply pitched aromas of herbal tea, dark currant and more evident floral elements. There is notably better mid-palate concentration to the more powerful flavors that are also more structured and compact on the more markedly austere finale that offers excellent balance and length. This beauty should age effortlessly.