Bouchard Père & Fils : Chambertin-Clos de Bèze Grand cru 2018

Plum, orange-peel and dried-meat aromas follow through to a full body, yet it’s so tight and polished with long, persistent tannins that give the wine wonderful depth and character. Still tightly wound. Give this until after 2023 to show it all.

As I reported when I tasted it from barrel, Bouchard’s source insisted on picking very late in this vintage, and the 2018 Chambertin Clos de Bèze Grand Cru is accordingly the headiest, ripest wine in the cellar by some margin, labeled at a tariff-busting but surely honest 15% alcohol. Offering up an extravagant bouquet of orange rind, raspberries, ripe plums, rose petals and incense framed by a generous application of spicy oak, it’s full-bodied, fleshy and enveloping, with broad shoulders and a sweet core of sun-kissed fruit, built around melting tannins and concluding with noticeable alcoholic warmth. This is a challenging wine to score fairly, since its high-octane style is sure to prove divisive and I suspect it won’t make old bones; yet at the same time, Frédéric Weber has clearly done a fine job with the fruit he received.