2013 Domaine Tortochot, Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru

John Gilman

Domaine Tortochot has forty year-old vines in Charmes-Chambertin and the wine carries its new wood (eighty percent) pretty well on the nose, but will need some bottle age to better integrate this component on the palate. The bouquet is first rate, wafting from the glass in a fine mix of red and black cherries, cocoa, a nice touch of meatiness, dark soil tones and spicy new oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and very transparent on the attack, with a fine core of fruit, lovely focus and a long, tannic finish. This will be complex and classy in the fullness of time, but it will need a good seven or eight years to blossom (and integrated its new wood) before it really starts to sing. I was imagining this wine done mostly in one wine barrels and I have little doubt that the results would be very exciting indeed. That said, this will be a good wine with sufficient bottle age.