The 2018 Pommard 1er Cru Les Rugiens has also turned out beautifully, wafting from the glass with scents of plums, dark chocolate, peonies, orange rind and spices. Medium to full-bodied, deep and multidimensional, it's velvety and layered, balanced by lively acids and concluding with a long, mineral finish. If the domaine produced an unusually serious, concentrated Rugiens in 2017, they've produced an unusually suave, elegant Rugiens in 2018, making for a duo that it will be fascinating to compare for decades to come.

More brooding than the Grands Epenots, the 2017 Pommard 1er Cru Les Rugiens unfurls in the glass with a deep-pitched bouquet of cassis, black cherries, rich soil tones, peonies and dark chocolate, deftly framed by a discreet touch of oak. On the palate, it's full-bodied, deep and concentrated, with a textural attack, muscular but velvety structuring tannins and a long, resonant and intensely sapid finish. This is a brilliant wine from Gaunoux, and one of the wines of the vintage along the C?te de Beaune this year.