Meo Camuzet Richebourg Grand Cru - 2021

Richebourg is a king of a wine: the Colonnade of the Louvre, the Château of Versailles. You are impressed by its finesse, its length and its delicate sensations, endlessly changing. The fact that no element dominates the others enables you to appreciate all of its aromas, on the nose and on the palate. Force and subtlety in one wine?

Burghound 94-96: This is also quite restrained and requires aggressive swirling to reveal the gorgeously spicy and beautifully layered nose of cool but ripe aromas of violets, plum and exotic tea. Here too there is impressive volume to the full-bodied and opulently rich mineral-driven flavors that are blessed with a similar abundance of mouth coating sap that imparts a velvety mouthfeel and buffers the very firm tannic spine supporting the strikingly long and balanced finish. This muscular effort is terrific though like the Cros Parantoux, a wine that is going to need extended patience.

Wine Advocate 93-95: The 2021 Richebourg Grand Cru wafts from the glass with aromas of cherries and sweet berries mingled with hints of rose petals, spices, vine smoke and toasty new oak. Full-bodied, rich and layered, it's fleshy and concentrated, with supple tannins, lively acids and a long, expansive finish.

Decanter 96: The Méo-Camuzet Richebourg showed abundant, silky sweet fruit in the 2021 vintage, with notes of pomegranate and raspberry, a hint of mineral and some smoke. It is a very pretty wine on the initial attack, and the wine is balanced and elegant. Méo has switched his oak program up: he dries the staves for three years and uses light toast almost everywhere. The effect is very elegant, even if here I can’t help feeling that it lacks a bit of substance in comparison to previous vintages, and that it will be ready to drink sooner than some.

Burghound 94-97: An exuberantly spicy nose is much more expressive than it usually is with its aromas of rose petal, violet, lavender, sandalwood, hoisin and once again, exotic tea nuances. There is a lovely sense of underlying tension to the gorgeously textured and refined yet seriously powerful larger-bodied flavors that conclude in a hugely long if moderately austere, balanced and stylish finish. This is robust yet classy and a wine that should also amply repay 15 to 20 years of keeping.

Vinous 96-98: The 2022 Richebourg Grand Cru comes from 0.4 hectares and is matured entirely in new oak. This has a fabulous bouquet with more intensity than the Cros Parantoux at the moment, with precocious yet controlled red fruit, floral with superb delineation. The palate is medium-bodied with sensual ripe tannins and layers a mineral-rich red fruit with a precise but lengthy finish. Is it the best Richebourg the Domaine has ever made? Not sure about that. But it has an unmistakable nobility.

Decanter 97: The 2022 Richebourg from Méo is superb. The wine boasts a supple, open blackberry and currant fruit with hints of ginger, smoke, and pepper. There is perfume and great finesse, but the wine does not lack density or length. The grapes come from four plots – one in Richebourg proper and three different dates of plantation in Verroilles, the oldest one from the '50s, all planted against the slope. The vines yield tiny berries, which Méo destems completely before fermentation – pumping over at the beginning and punching down at the end to deliver a consistently delicious result.