The 2017 La Romanée Grand Cru is characteristically impressive, unfurling in the glass with an extravagant bouquet of cassis, violets, dark chocolate, espresso roast, sweet spices, orange rind and rose hip that has integrated its lavish framing of new wood more completely than any other wine in the cellar. On the palate, it's full-bodied, ample and satiny with a deep, sapid core of concentrated fruit that largely conceals its broad structural shoulders, concluding with a pungently intense but subtly wood-inflected finish. This has the makings of a comparatively precocious vintage of La Romanée that will offer a broad drinking window.