The king of the cellar this year is the 2020 Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Cros Parantoux, a powerful but balanced wine that offers up aromas of cassis, cherries, sweet spices and dark chocolate. Full-bodied, layered and vibrant, it's a serious, structured wine with a concentrated core of fruit framed by firm but powdery tannins.

Rouget produced nine barrels of the 2019 Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Cros Parantoux, and it was here, he told me, that he began his harvest in the C?te de Nuits. Unfurling in the glass with notes of cherries, rose petals, smoke, warm spices and toasty new oak, it's full-bodied, velvety and layered, with a rich, textural profile, underpinned by lively acids and youthfully chalky tannins. While it's still a very powerful Cros Parantoux, it's less extreme in profile than this year's Echézeaux.

Tasted from several barrels, the 2017 Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Cros Parantoux was showing very well, unfurling in the glass with aromas of sweet berries, dark spices, grilled meats, rich soil and rose petal. On the palate, it's full-bodied, multidimensional and concentrated with a sappy core of fruit and the vertical line that routinely marks the wines from this comparatively cool site, concluding with a long and precise finish. It's a brilliant wine.

The 2016 Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Cros Parantoux was only slightly touched by the frost, with Emmanuel losing around 10% of the fruit, no more. Matured in 100% new oak, it has a very pure bouquet with blackberry, raspberry preserve, cold stone and hints of violet gently unfolding in the glass, not a million miles away from a Richebourg (both stylistically and geographically!). The palate is beautifully balanced with luscious red fruit coordinated with a fine line of acidity, blood orange and hints of licorice with blood orange/tangerine notes toward the sustained, pixelated finish. Superb…but maybe the Beaumonts has the edge this year.