1996 Chambolle Musigny Les Cras

This wine has an expressive nose of violets, black raspberries, stones, and toasted oak followed by a rich, wide, medium-to-full-bodied, and velvety-textured core of red currants, minerals, and blackberries. This masculine, foursquare, structured offering will require cellaring. Anticipated maturity: 2003-2007. Ghislaine Barthod was "charmed by this vintage, it has purity of fruit, raspberries mostly, and elegance." She informed me that she had dropped grapes a month or so before the harvest to reduce yields to 42 hectoliters/hectare. Barthod has enlarged her formerly-cramped cellar, and installed an elevator to assist her in making her delicious Chambolles. Since her wines are all produced with the same techniques, including 25% new oak, tasting at this domaine represents a lesson in this village's terroirs. Importer: Neal Rosenthal, Select Vineyards, Shekomeko, NY; tel. (800) 910-1990.