Burning bales of straw successfully warded off spring frosts; and the 2017 Chambolle-Musigny La Combe d'Orveau that they saved is very pretty, offering up aromas of raspberries, plums, warm spices and rose petals. On the palate, the wine is medium-bodied, satiny and succulent, with lovely purity of fruit and a bright, mineral finish.

The 2015 Chambolle Musigny la Combe d'Orveaux has a fragrant bouquet with raspberry preserve, wild strawberry and mulberry scents - not the most complex you will come across in Chambolle, but I appreciate the purity of fruit. The palate is well balanced with red cherry and mulberry, gentle and harmonious, an easygoing and self-effacing Chambolle-Musigny that should give drinking pleasure soon after bottling.

The 2014 Chambolle Musigny la Combe d'Orveau is back, back, back after being hailed off last year. It has a tightly wound bouquet with blackberry, wet limestone and briary scents, more Morey in style than Chambolle perhaps. The palate is crisp and taut on the entry, quite terse and backward; this is a broody Chambolle with a brisk, very linear finish. It should gain more flesh by the time of bottling, but it might still be convalescing from the trauma of 2013.

The 2012 Chambolle-Musigny La Combe d’Orveau was taken directly from barrel on the lees. It has a perfumed bouquet with dried petals infusing the lifted fresh strawberry and red cherry scents that build in volume in the glass. The palate is underpinned by a sorbet-like freshness, very fine tannins and concludes with a satisfying, feminine and refined finish. What a lovely wine this will be! After modest success with her 2011s, it was great to come back to this domaine to find eternally youthful pixie-like Anne Gros back on form with a gaggle of gorgeous 2012s. Anne, the cousin of Bernard, Michel and Anne-Francoise, is one of the most conscientious winemakers I know, somebody who lives for her family, whether that is her three children or her vines. She exacts a meticulous picking, which in 2012 commenced on 21 September and lasted over three weeks until the 15 October up in her “Hautes Cotes” vines. I have written several times about this domaine, which I visited on my first Burgundy trip back in 1997. They have a slightly modern sheen like her cousin Bernard Gros, but here they are slightly more nuanced and terroir-driven. Quantities are small and sought after, and in 2012 her piece de resistance might not be the Richebourg, rather one of the best Clos de Vougeot wines of the vintage. But do not ignore either her excellent Hautes Cotes de Nuits white or red (or indeed her superb joint venture with partner Jean-Paul Tollot down in sunny Minnervois.) Importers: various importers (go to http://www.anne-gros.com/en/in-the-world.html) and several importers in both the US and UK.

The 2011 Chambolle-Musigny Combe d’Orveau has a sweet, generous bouquet with touches of confectionary shop informing the red fruit. The palate is medium-bodied with a supple opening: clean red berries, citrus lemon with a slightly abrupt but balanced finish. Fine. Drink now-2017. I have long admired the wines of Anne Gros where I have been visiting since the late 1990s, before I ever put pen to paper, so to speak. She has always been a typical Burgundian, preferring to stay in and around Vosne with her husband, Jean-Paul Tollot, and their three children. Years ago, she spoke of her dislike of travelling abroad. But Burgundy has changed and become more international. Anne has changed too, since she was in Hong Kong when I came by, so it was her daughter Julie who guided me through the wines-having just started working with her mother in recent months. Some commentators have criticized Anne’s wines for leaning too far toward new oak, though I myself have found them to handle the wood and absorb it well once the wines are allowed to age. But I have to confess, I did find the use of 100% new oak suppressed and occasionally overwhelmed the fruit in these 2011s. The usual exuberance may have been diminished by bottle shock, but I worry that some of these wines did not show the requisite weight of fruit to handle that amount of oak. It is nothing to do with the winemaking, but rather the limitations imposed by the growing season. Importer: Atherton Wine Imports; www.awiwine.com