2005 Nuits St Georges Les Boudots (Domaine Gagey)

The Jadot 2005 Nuits-St.-Georges Les Boudots features ripe but tart aromas and flavors of lightly cooked blackberry and rhubarb, bitter-sweet herbal nuances, and a pan reduction-like concentration of meatiness. Toasted nut and floral nuances also emerge in the relatively darkly-inflected, austere finish. Despite recent racking, this displays very fine if abundant tannins. Still, I think it has not entirely recovered. Jacques Lardiere has once again presided over a collection for the most part not intended to flatter in its youth, but rather to achieve an eventual balance of fruit acidity with (in this instance frequently quite prominent) tannin. Prolonged post-fermentative extraction promoted a formidably-structured group of wines, which Lardiere expressed no hurry about bottling. Certain of these – particularly from the Cote de Beaune – displayed a slightly drying finishing astringency or simply an austere lack of charm to match their concentration, traits Lardiere suggested might be traceable to drought stress in those sites. A brief July rain that reached the Cote de Nuits but not the Cote de Beaune was critical, he asserts, and all of Jadot’s vines in the northern Cote were picked before the harvest in the south commenced. (Wines from the Domaine Louis Jadot, Domaine Heritiers Louis Jadot, or Domaine Gagey, have been identified with a letter “D” in their listings.) Also recommended: 2005 Cote de Nuits-Villages Le Vaucrain ($25.00;86+?), 2005 Santenay Clos de Malte ($27.00; 85-87), 2005 Savigny-les-Beaune Aux Guettes (84-86+?), 2005 Nuits-St.-Georges ($37.00; 85-87+?), 2005 Chambolle-Musigny ($50.00; 85-87+?). Importer: Kobrand, Inc., New York, NY; tel.(212) 490 9300

Dark red-ruby. Perfumed aromas of blackberry, violet and licorice. Juicy, sexy and expressive, with lovely precision to the cherry and spice flavors. Not a fleshy wine but taut and strong. The vibrant finish features lingering notes of mint and licorice.

A potent nose of wood spice, ripe plum and red berry fruit aromas that introduce serious but delicious medium full flavors brimming with dry extract and a sappy mouth feel on the classy, deep and gorgeously long finish. A truly lovely effort that will need every bit of a decade to see its majority and perhaps more. Allen Meadows, Burghound Apr01,2007