The 2023 Saumur-Champigny "les Lizières" from Clotilde Legrand is a superb young wine. The bouquet is deep, pure and nascently complex, wafting from the glass in a mix of cassis, dark berries, French Roast, chalky soil tones, tree bark, a hint of menthol and a topnote of cigar smoke. On the palate the wine is deep, young, full-bodied and rock solid at the core, with a fine chassis of buried tannin, excellent focus and grip and a long, beautifully balanced and very promising finish. This is an excellent wine in the making, but it will want a few years in the cellar to soften up its tannins before it starts to drink with proper generosity.