2012 Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux, Vosne-Romanee Premier Cru, Les Grands Suchots

Good deep red. Fresher and more minerally on the nose than the Reignots, offering dark aromas of blackberry, cassis, licorice and violet. Densely packed, silky and suave, showing captivating sweetness and roundness to its dark raspberry, spice and mineral flavors. Comes across as a bit heavier than the 2013 version, and less perfumed, but this harmonious, very concentrated wine (the crop level here was under 20 hectoliters per hectare, according to Pascal Lachaux) boasts excellent medicinal reserve.

The 2012 Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Suchots was Charles Lachaux's debut vintage at the estate, and the wine looks back to his father's style as much as it anticipates his own. Offering up a rich bouquet of wild berries, baking chocolate, warm spices, peonies and toasty oak, it's medium to full-bodied, deep and concentrated, with an elegantly muscular chassis of powdery tannin, lively acids and a long, expansive finish. It's a lovely wine, but it's more marked by its élevage and not quite so captivatingly perfumed as the 2018 tasted alongside. It was vinified with 50% whole cluster.