Vosne Romanee Suchots, Domaine Hudelot-Noellat 2012

Good bright, full red. Sexy, high-pitched aromas of crushed raspberry, Oriental spices and rose petal. Silky, penetrating and deep, displaying outstanding concentration and verve, and a magically light touch, to its brilliantly pure dark fruit and spice flavors. Wonderfully elegant, supple, dense wine with a superb building finish that leaves the mouth awash in perfume. These very old vines always have a high percentage of millerande berries and never produce more than 35 hectoliters per hectare, according to Charles van Canneyt. (The Vosne-Romanee Les Beaumonts had been racked two weeks before my visit, as it had shown some mercaptans at the beginning of its malolactic fermentation, and was still impossible to taste.)