One of the more extreme wines in the range (checking in at 15.2% alcohol) is the 2020 Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Beaux Monts, a full-bodied, rich and assertively chewy wine evocative of baked plums, fruit compote, blackberry jam and spices. While this is often one of Rouget's finest cuvées, I'm skeptical about this year's rendition.

The 2019 Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Beaux Monts is shaping up nicely, unwinding in the glass with aromas of cherries, candied peel, plums, spices and toasty new oak. Full-bodied, rich and powerful, it's ripe and muscular but retains good energy and cut.

The 2018 Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Beaux Monts opens in the glass with a brooding bouquet of wild blueberries, cassis, woodsmoke and peonies that's framed by a lavish but nicely integrated application of high-quality new oak. On the palate, the wine is medium to full-bodied, muscular and textural, with a deep and layered core, fine-grained tannins and a long, penetrating finish.

The 2017 Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Beaux Monts is a decided success, offering up a complex bouquet of smoky cherries, cassis, dark chocolate, fennel seed and grilled squab. On the palate, the wine is medium to full-bodied with a deep and ample core of beautifully pure fruit, satiny tannins and excellent energy. It's already well on the way to integrating its 100% new oak.

The 2015 Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Beaux Monts reveals an expressive, alluring nose of wood smoke, wild black fruit and violets that is already integrating its lavish application of high-quality new oak. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied and ample, its chassis of fine tannins cloaked in a deep core of dark fruit. This hasn't yet begun to shut down, but when it does, plan to forget it for a decade. From 70-year-old vines, with a finished alcohol of 14.2%—making it one of the highest-octane cuvées in the Rouget cellar this year.