The 2015 Chambolle Musigny Cuvee des Cigales has a voluminous bouquet with crushed strawberry and raspberry fruit, fine definition and quite floral in style. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannin, fleshy in the mouth with red cherry and strawberry fruit, leading to a gentle, quite sensual finish—very Chambolle in style.

The 2014 Chambolle Musigny Cuvée des Cigales was showing a little earthiness, some quite pronounced undergrowth aromas in this wine (you might think it had some whole bunch fruit, but it was 100% destemmed). The palate is medium-bodied with crisp tannin, a little rustic perhaps, nicely balanced with a fizz of limestone on the finish, Morey-like in structure with moderate length. It just needs to muster a bit more charm by the time it is bottled.

The 2013 Chambolle-Musigny Cuvée des Cigales has a deep blackcurrant and raspberry bouquet: reserved but delineated. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins, a pleasant powdery texture, a lively acidic thread and fine backbone on the finish that has a pleasant savory touch. Very fine and full of character.

The 2009 Chambolle-Musigny Cuvee Cigales presents a decidedly huge, brooding style of Chambolle. The Cigale offers plenty of power and intensity, but the masculine personality is not for the timid! Anticipated maturity: 2019-2029. This set of 2009s from Laurent Ponsot was among the finest I tasted. The wines are simply dazzling from top to bottom. Ponsot was among the last to harvest in 2009, essentially starting when most, if not all, of his colleagues already had the fruit in their cellars. The fruit was 100% destemmed and the wines were vinified in oak vats. The wines were then racked into barrel for the malos, where many of them stayed with no further rackings. There is no new oak at Ponsot. The barrels range from 5 to 50 years of age. The range now includes a head spinning eleven Grand Crus, which now total an astonishing 70% of the estate’s total production. Ordinarily I would suggest cellaring the top 2009s for a minimum of 15 years or so, but now that Ponsot is bottling all of his wines with synthetic plastic corks made in Italy it is hard to know exactly how the wines will develop. I tasted all of the 2009s from barrel, where they had been aging since finishing their malolactic fermentations. Importer: Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL; tel. (205) 980-8802