The 2020 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Fonteny is also quite tightly wound after its recent bottling. Unwinding in the glass with aromas of dark berries, plums, licorice, spices and orange rind, it's framed by a touch of toasty new oak. Medium to full-bodied, layered and concentrated, with an incipiently fleshy but tightly wound core of fruit, this is showing a touch more structure than I would have anticipated from barrel, so it's clear that patience will be required.

The 2019 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Fonteny is very elegant, offering up notes of cherries and cassis mingled with licorice and dark chocolate. Medium to full-bodied, ample and layered, it's a deep, velvety wine that's seamless and complete, with powdery tannins and lively acids.

One of the more gourmand wines in the range this year is the 2018 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Fonteny, a layered and enveloping wine that wafts from the glass with aromas of raspberries, plums, sweet spices, candied peel, rose petals and licorice. Medium to full-bodied, deep and velvety, with fine concentration, a nicely integrated chassis of powdery structuring tannins and lively balancing acids, it has turned out beautifully.

The 2017 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Fonteny exhibits a brooding bouquet of smoky blackberries, dark chocolate, grilled meats and coniferous forest floor. On the palate, it's medium to full-bodied, velvety and enveloping, with terrific concentration and structural refinement, displaying more mid-palate amplitude than the Petite Chapelle but similarly striking energy and definition. This is another 2017 that has fully realized all the promise it showed from barrel.

The 2016 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Fonteny includes two-thirds whole-cluster fruit, originating from a parcel just before Ruchottes-Chambertin that is worked by horse. I love the aromatics here, with more red fruit than the domaine’s fellow cuvées: Morello, cranberry jus, some mulberry coming in. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin, very focused and energetic. It segues into darker fruit midway, but it maintains fine balance if remaining taut and linear instead of fanning out on the finish. There is a strictness in situ, so afford it 8 to 10 years in bottle, if you can. One "piddling" barrel produced.