2021 Clos des Lambrays, Grand Cru, Domaine des Lambrays, Burgundy

Deep-coloured and quite weighty – especially for a 2021! Good life here and just a little bite on the finish. Very appealing combination of the freshness of the vintage and the weight of a fine grand cru. Acidity of the vintage is there but as a grace note. 

Drink 2024 - 2044

Produced from two large parcels of differing vine ages - one that is approximately two-thirds of the blend and is now 50 years of age and a second, smaller group of vines that are approximately 25 years of age; made with 80% whole clusters and 80% new wood.

An intensely floral also freely reveals aromas of rose petal, violet, lavender, spiced plum and a whiff of newly turned earth. The sleek and precise middleweight flavours also possess a caressing yet quite a punchy palate feel while displaying outstanding length on the focused, moderately austere and built-to-age finale. This is also really very good and a wine that should easily repay 12 to 15 years of keeping.

Drink 2033

A pretty, perfumed and impressively deep wine, the 2021 Clos des Lambrays Grand Cru wafts from the glass with aromas of dark plummy fruit mingled with rose petals, bergamot, cinnamon and cloves. Full-bodied, ample and satiny, with a fleshy core of fruit that's framed by powdery tannins and lively acids, it concludes with good persistence.

I tasted four different cuvées, all of which had been vinified with 100% whole bunches, and then the final blend.

La Plante Dessous seemed useful as a blending component but not quite Grand Cru on its own. The other three were in a different league: Cerisier is not extra concentrated in colour but a fine red purple. The nose has elegance and nobility and shows the whole bunch more. There is unquestionably a cherry taste to the fruit, fresh white pepper, good acidity and fine length. Much more noble.

Les 50 Ouvrées Milieu) offers a little more depth to the vivid purple colour. The nose shows more weight, too, with the fruit slightly taking the lead over the vinification. A vast, sweet red fruit mouthful here, cherries again but now with a denser raspberry note behind. Complex long aftertaste.

Les 50 Ouvrées Dessus) is bright crimson purple in colour. A vigorous solid nose, less evidence of the whole bunches 100%). Less flamboyant yet with great density. This could make the heart of the cuvée with the cherries from the others to add a top note. It is very sensual, undoubtedly grand cru with a long, rich red fruit finish elongated by the whole bunch vinification. Limestone tension, slower ripening here.

And now for the blend. A lovely, even ruby colour across the glass. The bouquet just starts to peep out slowly, 80% whole bunch as Plante Dessus and Milieu were destemmed in 2021. Just a little light pepper seasoning the deep red berry fruit, which has a multiplicity of nuances. Overall, the wine has a magical sense of harmony but is the opposite of monolithic, showing waves of flavour and exquisite detail. If this continues to grow in the barrel, as Jacques suspects it will, it could well be a five-star wine.

Drink 2028 - 2038

The product of a difficult vintage, the 2021 Clos des Lambrays, is almost the antithesis of either the 2020 or the 2022, yet this wine has a charm and elegance all its own, and I count it among the great successes of this trying year. The colour is lighter, and the fruit is more perfumed and less powerful than its siblings, but there is a charm to the spicy pomegranate and lilac-scented fruit aromas and the elegant, silky finesse on the palate. The yield was half of an average year. The grapes were picked at 13.1 and chaptalised to 13.6, yet the overall impression is decidedly ahead of the pack.

Drink 2024 - 2050

The 2021 Clos des Lambrays Grand Cru continues to impress. Lighter in hue than the 2019 served alongside, it has a lovely nose, the 80% whole-bunch imparting a patina of herbaceousness, damp forest floor, that marries beautifully with the dark berry fruit. The palate is medium-bodied with a fresh, supremely poised entry. Notes of cedar and sage develop, the tannins more pliant than when I tasted this from barrel, with a piquant finish. Outstanding.

Drink 2027 - 2052