2017 Charmes-Chambertin Vieilles Vignes Grand Cru Denis Bachelet, Burgund

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate: Bachelet's 2017 Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru Vieilles Vignes is a magical young wine that entirely meets the high expectations I formed for it in barrel. Soaring from the glass with aromas of cassis, cherries, licorice, smoked meats, orange rind, incense and violets, it's full-bodied, textural and enveloping, with superb concentration and disarmingly sweet, velvety tannins, concluding with a long and lively finish. This is a dramatic young Charmes that's already head-turning and will age with immense grace. - William Kelley, Jan. 2020

Allen Meadows' Burghound: This was the only wine in the range to display any appreciable reduction along with a background dollop of wood. The velvety and highly seductive medium weight flavors possess an abundance of dry extract that easily buffers the moderately firm tannic spine shaping the lingering and well-balanced finish. This will need to develop more depth to merit the upper end of my projected range but the underlying material appears to be present such that it will be possible. - Allen Meadows, Jan. 2019

Vinous: The 2017 Charmes-Chambertin Vieilles Vignes Grand Cru is one of the most backward. I can remember tasting this wine from barrel over the last 15-odd years. Patience is needed. It gradually opens to reveal exquisitely defined blackberry, hawthorn and crushed stone aromas, hints of rose petal emerging with time. The palate is medium-bodied with supple and filigree tannin, perfectly judged acidity, the intensity flooding towards the back end with such effortlessly ease. This is yet another magnificent masterclass in Charmes-Chambertin courtesy of Bachelet and his century-old vines. - Neil Martin, Jan. 2019