The 2014 Chambertin Clos-de-Bèze Grand Cru has a pastille-like purity on the nose, very sensual for a Clos-de-Bèze with hints of marmalade and quince jus in the background. The palate is medium-bodied, a little disjointed on the entry perhaps, but there is good weight here and attractive notes of desiccated orange peel interlacing the red berry fruit on the finish. Let's see how this ages in bottle, because I am looking for a little more sustain on the aftertaste.

The 2013 Chambertin Clos de Bèze Grand Cru has a quintessential “Bèze” bouquet with wilted rose petals infusing the brambly red cherries and strawberry–all very well defined. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin, crisp acidity and a gentle build toward a blood-orange finish. There is backbone here for sure, allied with a sense of authority, a Clos de Bèze that will demand respect.

The 2012 Chambertin Clos-de-Beze Grand Cru has a slap of strawberry jam on the nose that just needs a little more eloquence and sophistication. Perhaps that will develop during the remainder of its elevage, because the palate is very impressive: rounded, powerful and deep. There are copious raspberry and strawberry coulis flavors that defined the very persistent finish. I will give this the benefit of doubt. It is always a pleasure to visit the indefatigable Mounir Saouma at his hideaway winery just off the Beaune periphique. He is a winemaker you can jest with, and he is often victim of my sardonic Essex humor (for example, when enthusing about obtaining one of five barrels of a premier cru, I dryly enquired whether the other four were sold off for distillation - I would not say that to Aubert de Villaine.) And I appreciate Mounir's wines. They used to taste a little too fat and almost over-powering in their youth, but I think he is fine-tuning his reductive winemaking style, achieving more freshness and vitality. I tasted his 2012 reds since the whites were still undergoing malolactic. Among the tidal wave of opinions, one that he emphasized was that to capture the quality of the vintage under cork, the wines should be bottled late, and not in spring when Burgundy will resound to the clinking of glass. Mounir also told me that he paid 50% more from wines in 2012 than in 2011, but that he intends to keep prices within 15% increase. Importers: Vintus LLC, Pleasantville, NY; tel. (914) 769-3000, Atherton Imports, Menlo Park, CA; tel. (650) 328-6639

The 2011 Chambertin Clos-de-Beze Grand Cru is more reticent on the nose at the moment compared to Mornir’s other 2011s, despite rigorous coaxing. But there is certain fine minerality present – very stony and defined. The palate is very well-poised, actually reminiscent of a couple of Rousseau’s de Beze tasted recently, with great finesse on the finish. This is beautiful, but it will need several years in bottle to allow the aromatics to shine. I have intermittently encountered the wines of Lucien Le Moine over the years and even spent an evening dining with the man behind it, Mounir, on one admittedly inebriated dinner a few years ago. But it was time to visit the winery tucked away down a side-street in Beaune, and taste through an enormous selection of wines with the man himself. Since his first vintage in 1999, he has focused on buying fruit that expresses individual lieux-dits, so that his cellar consists of dozens of micro-Cuvees that take a whole morning to taste through. He is an extremely principled winemaker with strong, some might say controversial beliefs. Even before entering the barrel cellar, he opined that too many white Burgundies are picked too late and that both the alcoholic and malolactic fermentations are completed too rapidly. Mornir likes two summers to complete the elevage and feels that too many vignerons bottle too early. He also used minimal sulphur for his wines, informing me that though his wines often start out deeper in color, they tend to become paler as they mature in bottle. I asked him about his opinion on the two vintages that we tasted together, the 2010 and 2011. “The 2010 and 2011 vintages have a lot of common points: low yields, fresh summer, both starting fruity and perhaps a little uniform,” he explained. “Then a year later, their personalities started coming out. The evolution of both vintages is similar. After a year and half they began to gain depth. When we picked 2010, people were talking about a light vintage, but now that is forgotten because they are so powerful. In 2011 they did the same. The 2010s achieved maturity naturally, but in 2011 we had to chaptalize most of the wines a little. I think it is an old style of Burgundy, how the wines were made before 1995. In 2010 we talk about tannins, but in 2011 we talk about more dry extract. You feel the presence of the wine but they are not dry. The 2010s finish with firm tannins, so in terms of longevity I think they will close down in a couple of years and then need another eight years. But I don’t think this will happen with the 2011. They are more like 2001 and 2007 that show their harmony early. They will be enjoyable over the next 15 years. The purity of the terroir in 2011 is exceptional, whereas in 2010 you have the power.” Apart from my marathon morning journey through Lucien le Moine’s 2011s, we sashayed over to the 2010s to see how a dozen were shaping up in bottle. These were bottled around August 2012 with a little sulphur in June. The bottles were double decanted at 90 minutes before tasting. Importers: Vintus LLC, Pleasantville, NY; tel. (914) 769-3000; Atherton Imports, Menlo Park, CA; tel. (650) 328-6639

The 2010 Chambertin-Clos de Beze is a huge, statuesque wine. This is pure Beze at its very finest. Black cherries, blackberries, cassis, violets and licorice stain the palate. Hints of menthol and white pepper develop later, adding lift and brightness. This marvelously complete wine is endowed with tremendous textural depth and richness. The tannins are substantial, but there is more than enough fruit to make them nearly imperceptible. The Beze is another wine with a virtually limitless future. Anticipated maturity: 2020-2030. It is always fascinating to settle in for a tasting with proprietor Mounir Saouma. With the exception of Jadot, I can't think of a single maison that draws across such a broad range of top vineyards. When taken together, the whites and reds provide insight to the performance of dozens of the finest sites in the region. Saouma is not much for comparisons when discussing 2010, saying quite simply, -2010 is 2010.- The vintage was not without some disappointments. Because of the miniscule yields, there is no 2010 Romanee St. Vivant or Richebourg. As always, these are some of the most unmanipulated wines being made in Burgundy. When I tasted the 2010s in November 2011, the wines had never been sulphured or racked. Saouma had just finished bottling his 2009s (a vintage many bottled on the early side) in October 2011! Importers: Vintus LLC, Pleasantville, NY; tel. (914) 769-3000, Atherton Imports, Menlo Park, CA; tel. (650) 328-6639