Exhibiting aromas of deep red berry fruit mingled with notions of bergamot, wintergreen and rich spices, the 2021 La Tache Grand Cru is full-bodied, deep and layered, with lovely depth at the core, racy acids and a long, mineral finish.

The 2020 La Tache Grand Cru is magical, mingling notions of mulberries, cherries and cassis with scents of bergamot, black tea, licorice, exotic spices and peonies. Full-bodied, rich and resonant, with a broad attack, huge mid-palate amplitude and a supple, seamless, elegantly muscular profile, this is a remarkably powerful but also profoundly complex, intellectually and sensually thrilling young wine.

The 2019 La Tache Grand Cru is sublime. Mingling aromas of wild berries and bergamot with notions of rose petals, exotic spices, violets, clove and cinnamon, it's full-bodied, deep and concentrated, with a multidimensional palate of breathtaking plenitude. Elegantly muscular, this is a vibrant, pristinely balanced wine that concludes with a long, resonant finish. More structured and broader shouldered than the ethereal Romanée-Conti itself, this will demand and richly reward bottle age.

While the 2017 La Tache Grand Cru is one of the most approachable recent vintages of this great monopole, it's still really too soon to be opening bottles. However, these things happen, and it's certainly a striking wine, unwinding in the glass with detailed aromas of wild berries, plums, exotic spices, orange, rose petals, peony and coniferous forest floor. Full-bodied, satiny and seamless, its beautifully refined tannins and succulent acids are cloaked in an ample core of fruit. Like many of the best 2017s, its charm is deceptive, as there's a lot waiting in reserve here, and even a few years' patience will bear dividends.

More reserved than the Richebourg and Romanée-St-Vivant, the 2016 La Tache Grand Cru unwinds in the glass with aromas of wild berries, licorice, rose petal, smoked duck and love, framed by a touch of cedary new oak. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, rich and velvety, with a deep, concentrated but tight-knit core, its firm chassis of fine-grained, structuring tannins cloaked in succulent fruit, underpinned by juicy acids. The finish is long and reverberative. This is a stunning La Tache in the making, but it is also one of the more reticent wines in the range and will demand some bottle age.