Richebourg 2015 75cl

The 2015 Richebourg Grand Cru was very tight on the nose when I tasted it. It did not seem to express the aristocratic nature of this formidable grand cru—perhaps a little emasculated? The palate is better with firm tannin, a clean line of acidity, focused and here beginning to convince the pedigree of the vineyard. The finish is very well defined and the persistence very long, but returning to the aromatics they still seem to be on stand-by mode. Let's see how it will show from bottle.<br/>Caroline Parent was one of several growers who asked if I minded tasting the family's wines in the early months of 2017 rather than the autumn/winter of 2016, which I was happy to do. Under their umbrella lie not only the wines of A-F Gros, but also François Parent and also Mathias Parent. Mathias told me that they commenced the picking on 7 September and harvested over the following five days. Everything is 100% de-stemmed as usual with a little whole bunch used for their Echézeaux. The other news here is that like Frédéric Lafarge, Louis Boillot and Thibault Liger-Belair, they have just acquired 3.5 hectares of vine in Moulin-à-Vent that will debut with the 2017 vintage. With regard to the wines being put through their paces here, there continues to be some very fine 2015s, such as the Vosne-Romanée Les Mazières and the Beaune 1er Cru Les Boucherottes. There were a couple of wines that did not quite fire on all cylinders and to be truthful, either the Richebourg had stage-fright or just could not get it together at the right moment, but I was expecting more "majesty" given several others that I tasted in this vintage. At times, I do feel that the level of new oak is a little top-heavy for the fruit and that the wines would benefit from just being less extracted in the winery. There is great fruit here, especially in 2015.