Musigny, Domaine Mugnier 2018

The 2018 Musigny Grand Cru Vieilles Vignes is, as usual, the most backward and reserved wine in the Mugnier cellar, unfurling in the glass to reveal aromas of ripe cherries, wild berries, frost floor and dark chocolate, framed by lovely top notes of musk and violets. On the palate, it's full-bodied, deep and multidimensional, its concentrated core of sapid fruit framed by an ample chassis of powdery tannin, concluding with a long and lively finish. Less demonstrative than the 2017 was at the same stage, this is a brooding, muscular Musigny that will require time to show all its cards.

Dark purple, pretty concentrated. Heady and perhaps a touch over opulent. Dark fruit, a chocolate note, a slightly drying finish. Unconvincing at first and the fruit is a little bit cooked. Some volatility, maybe some brettanomyces. With soem aeration, I do begin to love the quality of the underlying fruit otherwise, and the finish is cleaner and more persistent. Drink from 2033.

Deep crimson. Lifted with intense and pure cherry fruit and something almost a little minty/herbal even though it is fully ripe. At the moment the tannins are deeply layered, compact but not resistant. Majestic in its darker underlying power and restraint, with a dark, almost rocky finish that is dry and yet full of energy. Tannins are smooth but chalky because the grain is so fine. Endlessly long. Drink: 2028-45