2014 Chambertin Clos de Bèze Grand Cru Perrot-Minot

Un nez très épicé annonce un cru d'une grande complexité. Le fruit est frais. Une attaque soyeuse et un toucher de bouche velouté pour cette cuvée à l'élégance majeure. La finale fait rejaillir le fruit, doux et pur.

Made with grapes purchased from Pierre Damoy (as many Clos de Bèze wines seem to be), this is powerful, dense and brooding, combining fruit from red and white soils. Ferrous, chalky and spicy, with succulent black fruits, stylish oak and a note of pepper and clove spice. 2022-32.

Once again the highly expressive nose can be aptly described as ultra-floral with a huge range of spice elements on the airy and cool aromas of red and dark berry liqueur scents. There is that beguiling sense of underlying tension to the firmly stony and beautifully well-detailed broad-shouldered flavors that deliver superb length on the seamlessly well-balanced finale. This will need to develop more depth to merit the top of the range but the underlying material is certainly present such that it could occur.

The 2014 Chambertin Clos de Beze Vieilles Vignes has a very classy, sophisticated bouquet with vibrant red berry fruit infused with palpable mineral tones -- focused and complex. The palate has a sense of energy and animation on the entry with sorbet-fresh red fruit, orange zest and a touch of spice, the mouth tingling with the sensation; although, it segues into a more austere and structured finish, as if remembering its manners. This is an intriguing and cerebral Clos-de-Bèze.

Bright, dark red. Much more closed on the nose than the Mazoyères-Chambertin, offering aromas of dried rose petal and smoky minerality. Less demonstrative on the palate as well, but aeration brings up wonderfully intense, penetrating flavors of red berries, brown spices, peony, pepper and smoky minerality. Conveys a powerful impression of dry extract in a very silky, subtly sweet package. Finishes very long, with noble tannins, repeating red fruits and a vibrant spiciness that perks up the salivary glands. This knockout wine is fresher in bottle that it was from barrel in late 2015, when it was more dominated by lower- toned soil components.

This stylish red combines sweet, ripe berry and cherry fruit with subtle spices, wrapped in a frame of integrated oak and sophisticated tannins. The vibrant acidity lends focus, marshaling the long, spice-filled aftertaste. Shows plenty of tension, but all the components are here. Best from 2022 through 2045. From France.-B.S.