2006 Richebourg

Liqueur-like intensity and richness accrues to the cherry, cassis, and black raspberry fruit of Saouma's 2006 Richebourg. Cocoa powder, cinnamon, and fennel pollen add to the alluring sense of sweetness, yet enough of a fresh fruit edge and of fruit skin impingement as well as peppery, herbal, and ore-like mineral pungency are present to engender a sense of refreshment and invigoration in a vibrantly intense as well as lingeringly rich finish. While this displays in other respects a radically different personality from that of this year's Le Moine Malconsorts, it shares with that remarkable wine the fact that one has to go looking hard to find its tannins, so fine-grained are they. I imagine this is on the path to 15 or more years of riveting entertainment for any lucky enough to acquire some. "There was too much fruit" on the vines in 2006, opines Mounir Saouma, "and at the same time too much tannin in the fruit." Early pickers therefore, in his opinion, risked getting "lots of primary flavors, but wines that weren't serious. So we started the aging process asking ourselves how we will make this wine less tannic and more serious. After malolactic," which is always late here, "the wines changed completely. But the bigger mistake in 2006 was to bottle early" - something which also never happens at this address - "because the wines needed some time on their lees to extract sweetness and depth, and for all of their elements to come together." The results this year here are spectacular, and need not shy from comparison with their very different 2005 predecessors. Note that with a few significant exceptions there are usually only 1-2 barriques (25-50 cases) of any given Lucien Le Moine wine. Also, despite the number of them I tasted, that did not comprise by any means the entire collection (a circumstance I have taken pains to remedy with 2007). For further details on Le Moine's proprietors and methodology - which, once again this year, included a significant amount of vinification with stems - consult my report in issue 171. Importer: Vintus, Pleasantville, NY; tel. (919) 769-3000