1999 Domaine Taupenot-Merme Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru

Healthy dark red. Captivating nose offers scents of raspberry, mocha, graphite, tobacco and sandalwood; evolving slowly and gracefully. Then dense and wonderfully fresh in the mouth, with spice and soil tones perfectly counterpointing fresh remaining red fruits. No impression of heaviness here; in fact, this is quite lively and should still soften further with additional cellaring. Finishes very long and perfumed, with fine-grained, building tannins arriving late and reaching the front teeth. Incidentally, Romain Taupenot was working with his father during the 1998 through 2000 vintages before vinifying on his own in 2001. He noted that today he's more focused on extraction but emphasized that nowadays he's also beginning with fruit that's more consistently ripe.