Here the wood toast stops just short of dominating the aromas of dark raspberry, cherry, earth and discreet spice wisps. Once again there is excellent volume and underlying tension to the mineral-inflected middle weight flavors that are unusually powerful while delivering excellent length on the markedly firm bitter cherry pit-inflected finish. This very serious effort offers impressive intrinsic quality though note well that it's not only built-to-age but a wine that is going to need time as it's not like to make for especially interesting early drinking.

The 2016 Gevrey-Chambertin Clos Prieur Bas offers up aromas of cherries, plums, spices and forest floor, framed by a subtle touch of toasty new oak. On the palate, the wine is medium to full-bodied, chalky and firm, with good concentration but a tauter, more linear profile than the 2017 rendition. It will demand some time. (WK)