"As I have mentioned previously, Etienne Chaix is blessed to have his rows of vines in the lower, Bas section of Rugiens, which is often cited as a candidate for grand cru status if the appellation contrôlée rankings are ever revisited in Burgundy. These old vines have turned out a brilliant young wine in 2022, with the bouquet wafting from the glass in a superb blend of black cherries, red plums, raw cocoa, gamebird, woodsmoke, a beautiful base of stony soil tones, a touch of fresh thyme, roses and a discreet foundation of new oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full- bodied and properly structured out of the blocks, with a superb core of fruit, great inflection of soil, fine-grained, chewy tannins, great balance and a long, complex and precisely focused young finish. All this great wine needs is time in the cellar to blossom."