Michael Schuster | Deep purple; faint oxidation clear here too; rich, generous, vitally defined, very fine in firm tannin, overall a lovely generous balance; clearly deep and rich, complex and tenacious, and seductively fleshy, but without the absolute finesse, clarity, and separation of flavors that are the norm for this great wine. Clearly a consequence of the wine just lacking freshness, and which rapidly turns a bit short and dry. Not the nature of this always magnificent cru! Impossible to assess and describe fairly on the basis of this sample, but Louis-Michel’s La Romanée is regularly exceptional, and doubtless will be in this sumptuously fine vintage, too. | NS