Wine Advocate (91-93)

Notes of cherries, raspberries and cassis mingle with hints of forest floor and spices in an incipiently complex bouquet, introducing the 2018 Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Lavrottes, a medium to full-bodied, rich and structured wine that Felettig observes is always one of the slowest-evolving wines in the cellar. Mineral and youthfully firm, this is promising for the future.

Wine Advocate (92-94)

The 2019 Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Lavrottes opens in the glass with aromas of raspberries, plums and forest floor, complemented by hints of sweet spices and raw cocoa. Medium to full-bodied, mineral and incisive, it's concentrated and youthfully tightly wound, concluding with a youthfully grippy finish. This will take its time to come together, as is generally the case, but it's very promising.

Jasper Morris Inside Burgundy (90-92)

50% whole bunch vinification. Deep rich purple. An immediately blossoming nose, enlivened by the whole bunch. This is power packed and there is a sweetness of ripe fruit and oak which in fact balances very well. Structured but sensual with a crunchy finish. Tasted: December 2021

Jasper Morris Inside Burgundy (89-92)

A small amount of whole bunch and a lot of sorting. The 2021 Chambolle has a rich deep purple colour with a fairly full deep dark fruit on the nose. Nothing overly weighty, a bit of grenadine alongside the dark raspberry fruit, good acidity, lively and fresh with fine persistence Drink from 2025-2030. Tasted: December 2022

Vinous (90+)

The 2018 Chambolle-Musigny Village is positively bulging with black and red fruit on the nose of dense blackberry and bilberry; a light marine influence surfaces with time. The palate is well balanced with firm, grippy tannins that feel more robust and slightly drier than the 2019 compared alongside. A little brusque on the finish at the moment; this will require time.

Vinous (90-92)

Bright red with ruby tones. Crushed black fruits and cherry on the nose, lifted by notes of mint, rock and orange zest. Pliant but firm wine with thickness, clarity and lift. Sappy flavors of medicinal dark cherry, spices and red licorice display excellent balance and depth. A strong performance for this cuvée, from a crop that was off by 50% due to the frost. This reminded me of the superb 1993 bottling.

Vinous (93-95)

The 2017 Chambolle-Musigny Les Fuées 1er Cru has an open-knit bouquet of red cherries, kirsch, orange zest and quince aromas, with notes of tobacco and sous-bois. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin, touches of meat juices permeating red fruit that merges with darker fruit on the gently gripping, beautifully focused finish. The domaine’s best in show this year? Quite possibly.

Jasper Morris Inside Burgundy (91-93)

Picked 19th September, with enough fruit for two tanks: one was destemmed and the other not at all. Fresh light purple, one never expects a great depth of colour from the Clos des Poutures. This is very attractive and with a bit more flesh round the edges than sometimes, enough acidity, some tannins from the terroir and the vinification, but overall making an attractive ensemble here with some length.

Wine Advocate (88-90)

Produced from purchased fruit and vinified with one-third whole clusters, the 2018 Chambolle-Musigny Vieilles Vignes (négoce) bursts with aromas of raspberries, berries, woodsmoke and sweet soil tones. It's medium to full-bodied, succulent and fine-boned, with a delicate core of fruit framed by powdery tannins.

Tim Atkin MW (93)

Not currently available.

Burghound (89-91)

(from 11 different parcels in 7 different lieux-dits). A more elegant and slightly fresher nose is composed by aromas of black cherry, raspberry and pretty violet nuances. There is a really lovely texture to the delicious, saline-inflected and sneaky long finish that is very well-balanced. A quality Chambolle villages. (89-91)/2025+

Vinous (90-92)

The 2020 Chambolle-Musigny Village has a vivid bouquet with red cherries, cranberry and violet scents, actually, quite Vosne-like in personality. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannins, fine acidity, quite poised and tense with a dash of spice on the finish. This is a delicious Chambolle that should give 12-15 years' drinking pleasure.

Wine Advocate (95-97)

Mugnier's 2019 Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Amoureuses is thrilling, soaring from the glass with scents of peonies, blood orange, rose petals, raspberries, bergamot and Indian spices. Medium to full-bodied, deep and layered, it's exquisitely refined, with melting tannins, vibrant fruit and a long, penetrating finish. Exemplifying the ideal of intensity without weight, this is worth every effort to seek out.

Vinous (87-89)

The 2017 Chambolle-Musigny La Combe d’Orveau, wiped out last year after frost, has a straitlaced, rather reserved bouquet, touches of sous-bois and tobacco tincturing the red fruit. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin, a little foursquare and perhaps, relative to Grivot’s other 2017s, just missing a little energy on the finish.

Jancis Robinson (17)

Bottled. Pale shaded crimson. Intense floral perfume. Pure Chambolle with real excitement and detail. Pretty early maturing though.

Jancis Robinson (17.5)

Bottled. Especially pale rim. Very floral and hedonistic. Sweet start and surely just what burgundy lovers currently seek. Really rather gorgeous fruit and precision with just a little dry finish so probably worth waiting a while. Very long.

Vinous (93)

The 2017 Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru has an open nose of brambly red fruit, sous-bois and wilted rose petals, very pure and charming, and not dissimilar in style to François Bertheau's Chambolle 1er Cru. The palate is very harmonious, open and transparent. It feels lighter than others, yet the tension and precision will see this age with style, and perhaps it will not close down. Tempting now, but I would prefer to wait. Classy. Tasted blind at the Burgfest 2017 tasting.

Decanter (95)

This is a classic 'cuvée ronde', combining fruit from six different Premiers Crus to produce a stylish example of what Véronique Drouhin calls the 'cashmere of Burgundy'. Scented, balanced and ethereal, it's a transparent expression of Chambolle's range of terroirs, with sweet summer berry flavours and fine, velvety tannins. Accomplished stuff.

Tim Atkin MW (94)

Most of this fruit comes from domaine-owned parcels, but some is purchased. Six parcels in total contribute to this pretty, floral and silky-textured Chambolle. Sweet red fruits spread gently across the mid-weight palate before a light ganache note joins in and brings the wine into a gently fading finish. 2022-34

Tim Atkin MW (96)

South Africa's Sweet Wine of the Year 2017.

Decanter (98)

An historical wine, Vin de Constance has been re-established in the last few years as one of the world’s finest sweet wines. Dried Muscat grapes are aged for three years before bottling, in French and Hungarian casks with a touch of acacia wood. Citrus, orange zest, rosewater and spice notes leap out of the glass. The palate has a laser-like focus with massive sweetness perfectly balanced by acidity and a mineral finish. As impressive as Château d’Yquem (and considerably better value).

Tim Atkin MW (98)

Increasingly celebrated as one of the great sweet wines of the world, not just the Cape, Vin de Constance is a delight to taste and review. Slightly drier than the 205 release at 165 grams of sugar, it has more in common with the Loire or Tokaji than it does with Sauternes in terms of freshness and structure.

Matthew Jukes (19.5++)

I am informed by the top man at Klein Constantia that the price will be the same as last year’s superb 2017 and all of the likely candidates in the UK are likely to hold stock. It will require a little effort on Google and you will see that a large number of wine merchants will list 2018 Vin de Constance and while the prices swing around like no other wine I know, at £60 or so, for a half litre, it certainly makes sense to me and when you consider the sheer quality of this vintage, it is a bargain for this celestial experience. Stock is likely to arrive in September 2021, but do feel free to register your interest with your preferred wine merchant now. Vintage reports suggest that the build-up to the 2018 harvest brought the highest summer rainfall of the last six years and, combined with some of the coldest night-time temperatures on record, the vines were granted a very long and very slow growing season. These conditions have imbued extreme delicacy of perfume and flavour and also staggering concentration and length in this wine. It also means that the 2018 vintage has otherworldly characteristics and I cannot remember a young vintage tasting so refined and demure. Light bunches and tiny Muscat de Frontignan berries underline just how unusual this vintage was and with a harvest that was a fortnight later than average and crops down by about 15% all of these facts make sense when you taste this ethereal wine. Aged for three years in a combination of 50% new French oak barrels, a small number of acacia barrels, as well as large format foudres, this is both a sensual and also sensitive wine. For a start, the colour is incredibly pale – think a young Sancerre! But the viscosity is amazing when you pour a glass because the liquid moves ever so slightly slower and more deliberately into the glass. The lights come on and the brain fires up immediately and it takes you by surprise just how quickly your olfactory system senses that you are in the presence of greatness. I was in a state of heightened anticipation, long before I raised the glass to my lips and the reward is exquisite. The perfume and palate combine in an astral haze of delight with orange blossom, fig, lemon verbena, wild honey and acacia notes caressing your senses. The texture is super-smooth, incredibly long and unnervingly gentle. It certainly possesses the longest finish I can remember on a Vin de Constance and I have, very fortunately, a tasted huge number of vintages of this wine. If you have never tasted this wine before, please start with this vintage – it will blow your mind. If you have and you are a fan, this is a critical purchase for your collection. I cannot wait to add this wine to my cellar later in the year.

Decanter (98)

Butterscotch, lemon patisserie and peach aromas. Pristine quality to the texture, lively and thrilling, this is a serious, opulent and powerful wine, more on the spiced, nuanced side with aspects of dried herbs, wood scents and bitter lemon and orange with a touch of honeyed lychee. It feels supremely complex and characterful. Sophisticated, layered and balanced with some minerality, a slight graphite edge all of which adds to the whole. It's still extremely youthful but there is real sculpting here, a sense of precision, style and freshness. Well crafted with an extremely long life ahead. A wonder, and one of the best from the estate!

Vinous - Neal Martin (95)

The 2016 Lafon-Rochet has a very engaging bouquet, a mixture of red and black fruit laced with pencil shavings and loamy scents. In fact, the more you nose this wine, the more its complexity becomes apparent. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannins and a fine line of acidity, ripe and generous yet maintaining outstanding tension and revealing a judicious touch of peppercorns on the finish, which fans out gloriously. This is a fabulous Lafon-Rochet and certainly the best bottle of 2016 that I have encountered. Tasted blind at the Southwold tasting.

Jasper Morris Inside Burgundy (92-95)

Raised in 30% new wood and 70% 1 year old. Solid purple with medium depth. The nose starts on the oak and soon moves to the fruit. Very succulent again, smoothly balanced with a firm grip to the tannins. Yet it is suavely put together. High class, and it certainly has the length. Tasted: October 2019

Wine Advocate (86-88)

The 2015 Pommard Les Perrières has quite a rich bouquet with touches of fig infusing the kirsch and cassis aromas. The palate is sweet on the entry with bold tannin, moderate complexity with a firm, slightly confit-like finish that needs to muster a little more precision. Not bad, although maybe just picked a day or two too late? Let's see.