The 2018 Corton Clos du Roi Grand Cru is showing well, offering up aromas of raspberries, spices, rose petals and rich soil tones. Medium to full-bodied, layered and enveloping, it's rich but lively, with velvety tannins and a generous core of fruit.

The 2015 Corton Clos du Roi Grand Cru from Louis Latour is an attractive wine, wafting from the glass with aromas of black cherry, wild berries, wood smoke and creamy new oak. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied and vibrant, with a bright line of acidity and an ample chassis of fine-grained but chalky tannins which assert themselves on the firm finish.

The 2013 Corton Clos du Roi Grand Cru has a slightly withdrawn bouquet at first, gradually unfolding with blackberry and wild hedgerow scents. The palate is better with fine, sappy red berry fruit and a keen acidic thread with raspberry and wild strawberry fruit. There is a pleasant spicy note that surfaces toward the finish that prolongs the length in the mouth, although it does not quite reach the complexity of the best Cortons of the vintage.

Tasted blind at the annual "Burgfest" tasting in Beaune. The 2012 Corton Grand Cru Clos du Roi from Louis Latour has a tightly wound bouquet of cranberry and raspberry fruit, just a touch of dried orange peel, the oak nicely integrated but needing time to get into full swing. The palate is medium-bodied with sappy red berry fruit tinged with soy, spicy in the mouth and perhaps just missing some elegance towards the finish. It is a broad-shouldered Corton that may improve with a couple of years in bottle.

Tasted blind at the Burgundy 2011 horizontal tasting in Beaune. The Corton Clos du Roi ‘11 has the most truculent and introspective aromatic profile of the flight: tightly wound earthy red and black fruit, then orange rind and, as it begins to open, more sense of minerality. The palate is smooth and rounded on the entry, quite plush in the mouth with no hard edges, although the citrus-tinged finish needs a little more sophistication and nuance. Still primal at this stage, it needs another 4-5 years in bottle.