(BH91-94 points) As with several wines in the range there is a noticeable touch of menthol adding a top note to the earthy black raspberry aromas. There is fine mid-palate density and dry extract that imparts a velvety mouth feel to the delicious broad-shouldered flavors that possess excellent length on the very firmly structured and moderately austere finale. This will very definitely need at least 8 to 10 years of cellar time and 15 to 18 would be better.

Tasted blind at Fine & Rare Wines' Clos Vougeot tasting, the 2013 Clos Vougeot Grand Cru from Maison Joseph Drouhin has a light and breezy nose, not as complex as others, but with attractive red cherry, crushed strawberry and violet aromas. It actually gains more nuance as it opens in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with nicely interwoven new oak. Modest weight in the mouth, what I like here is the well-judged acidity that maintains tension from start to finish. It needs time to fully subsume the wood; and to quibble, it needs more persistence. But at its core is a really quite pretty, comely Clos Vougeot. - Neal Martin