Gros' old vines have produced a superb 2017 Clos Vougeot Grand Cru Le Grand Maupertui, a wine that wafts from the glass with complex aromas of plummy fruit, incense, rich soil, musk and spicy new oak. On the palate, the wine is medium to full-bodied, ample and satiny, with a layered, broad-shouldered profile defined by a fleshy core of fruit and fine, stony tannins.

The 2016 Clos Vougeot Grand Cru Le Grand Maupertui is showing very well from bottle, opening in the glass with intense aromas of wild blueberry, cassis, spicy soil tones, licorice and violet. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, ample and layered, with excellent depth and dimension at the core, displaying more concentration and fine-grained structure than the 2017 rendition and concluding with a pure, mineral finish.

The 2015 Clos Vougeot le Grand Maupertui has a distinctly more floral bouquet than many others than I tasted from barrel, iris and crushed violet petals infusing the black cherry and blueberry fruit. I admire the precision and terroir expression here. The palate is medium-bodied with supple, ripe, red and black fruit, a hint of mulberry and white pepper developing in the glass. It has a grainy texture, firm structure and natural balance and poise on the sustained finish. Persistent in the mouth, this is an excellent Clos Vougeot from Anne Gros.

The 2011 Clos de Vougeot Le Grand Maupertui has a similar bouquet to the Echezeaux: restrained at first but developing attractive scents of summer berry fruit mingling with wild fennel with time. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins on the entry. The acidity is nicely judged and it has an elegant finish with just a touch of spice. Drink now-2018. I have long admired the wines of Anne Gros where I have been visiting since the late 1990s, before I ever put pen to paper, so to speak. She has always been a typical Burgundian, preferring to stay in and around Vosne with her husband, Jean-Paul Tollot, and their three children. Years ago, she spoke of her dislike of travelling abroad. But Burgundy has changed and become more international. Anne has changed too, since she was in Hong Kong when I came by, so it was her daughter Julie who guided me through the wines-having just started working with her mother in recent months. Some commentators have criticized Anne’s wines for leaning too far toward new oak, though I myself have found them to handle the wood and absorb it well once the wines are allowed to age. But I have to confess, I did find the use of 100% new oak suppressed and occasionally overwhelmed the fruit in these 2011s. The usual exuberance may have been diminished by bottle shock, but I worry that some of these wines did not show the requisite weight of fruit to handle that amount of oak. It is nothing to do with the winemaking, but rather the limitations imposed by the growing season. Importer: Atherton Wine Imports; www.awiwine.com