2010 Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux, Romanee-Saint-Vivant Grand Cru

Good full red. Vibrant perfume of raspberry, spices and minerals. Boasts outstanding dark berry intensity, with powerful crushed-stone minerality and a saline quality giving great energy and tension to the middle palate. Finishes with remarkable rising length, utterly suave tannins and superb lift. Like the Suchots, this is already wonderfully aromatic but is built for a decade or two of improvement in bottle.

The 2010 Romanée-Saint-Vivant Grand Cru precedes Charles Lachaux joining the domaine by a year and it is easy to see the difference in style between this and later vintages. The bouquet is ripe and forward with wild strawberry, dark cherries and mulberry aromas, touches of lavender developing with time in the glass. The palate is quite rich and succulent, an unashamedly decadent Romanée-Saint-Vivant that just feels a little obvious compared to the finesse imbued nowadays. Thoroughly enjoyable, but it feels a little anachronistic. Tasted at the annual Arnoux-Lachaux tasting at Corney & Barrow.