Chambertin Clos de Bèze Ouvrées Rodin, Domaine Faiveley 2016

The 2016 Chambertin Clos de Bèze Grand Cru Les Ouvrées Rodin is showing brilliantly from bottle, unfurling in the glass with a rich bouquet of cassis, cherries, red berries, grilled game, licorice, spices and smoky new oak. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, ample and expansive, with a deep and intense core of sapid fruit that cloaks its satiny but abundant structuring tannins, underpinned by succulent acids and concluding with a seriously long, penetrating finish. This special cuvée hails from a parcel of vines planted in 1966 on the Chambertin side of Clos de Bèze, and its name commemorates a Faiveley family connection with the sculptor Rodin.

The special selection, Les Ouvrées Rodin, has a noticeably denser purple colour than the regular Clos de Bèze. It also delivers more generous fruit on the nose but certainly not a trace of vulgarity. Complex deep red fruit has to be searched out on the nose. Then an absolute wealth of fruit, a velvet luxury in deep red. It is clearly worthwhile to have separated these grapes out.