Domaine Ponsot, Clos de la Roche Grand Cru, Cuvee Vieilles Vignes 1999

This was a magical bottle of the 1999 Clos de la Roche Grand Cru Cuve Vieilles Vignes, a wine that's just beginning to hit its stride as it approaches its 20th birthday, unfurling in the glass with aromas of red berries, cassis, dark chocolate, cinnamon, dried rose petals and orange rind. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, deep and immensely concentrated, with a broad attack, lovely acids and a formidable reserve of creamy old-vine fruit, structured around a chalky chassis of tannin that evokes the great old Burgundies of yesteryear. Concluding with a long and expansive finish, this is still a young wine, and another two decades of aging won't be a problem. But it's now clear that this ranks as one of Ponsot's greatest recent hits and one of the high points of this reputed vintage.