Pommard Clos des Epeneaux, Domaine Comte Armand 2022

First we tasted the component parts. (1) Young vines from 1980s. A deep concentrated purple. Lesser foliage in the hot dry summer has concentrated the colour and other aspects, giving a dark style of fruit as well, with a nutty finish, but good acidity. (2) A blend, mainly from plot #3 and a bit of #1. Mid purple in colour, less demonstrative on the nose. A much suppler style of fruit, less forceful acidity, fine length, more typical Epenots here. (3) Old vines, 90+ years old: A deep glowing purple. A little more intensity, a gorgeous quality of deep red fruit, just a touch tougher in its tannins, plus the acidity. (4) Press wine: dark purple, powerful rather than fine on the nose, more volatile, but could be useful in the blend. Sweet thick dark red to black fruit. Chunky stuff. And now the blend: A deep purple colour with only a very slightly lighter rim. The bouquet suggests poise as the fruit has melded together harmoniously. On the palate this is, as almost always, a much more complete wine than the individual parts. The wine seems to push down deeper while retaining all the class of the very best components. We are approaching the cusp of red and black fruit, the acidity is perfectly harnessed and the tannins are fine grained. Potentially a very fine Clos des Epeneaux.

Background hints of wood can be found on the ripe and nicely fresh aromas of poached plum, black cherry and violet. The round, velvety and rich medium weight plus flavors possess fine mid-palate concentration before culminating in a youthfully austere, serious, compact and sneaky long finale. This potentially outstanding effort could use better depth so at least some patience should prove beneficial and 12 to 15 years would be better still. (Drink starting 2034)