2005 Chapelle Chambertin
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Tasting notes
Bright red-ruby. Wild but rather tight aromas of black plum liqueur and game (Dugat describes this one as a bit heavy). Fat, thick and sweet but a bit youthfully tight and angular today. This, too, is rather massive and liqueur-like, and very much marked by the vintage. Finishes with substantial tannins and roasted and medicinal nuances. Impressive but a bit anonymous for all its richness.
Critic scores
Average Score
Allen Meadows, Burghound
The Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
From old vines he farms but does not own comes Dugat’s 2005 Chapelle-Chambertin, displaying sweetly-ripe, lightly-cooked cherry fruit with overtones of cranberry and orange zest as well as resin and vanilla from the barrel. Rich and generous as well as sweetly spicy in the mouth, it offers a generosity of fruit to fit its creamy texture and is strikingly at odds with the severe and mineral-dominated concentration of this year’s Griotte. The ferrous soils seem to encourage spiciness and a generous, sappy cast to the fruit. This does not display quite the same penetration or concentration as the Griotte. I suppose the Chapelle has more charm as well as generosity, but I wonder whether time will diminish the effects of its having failed while in barrel to completely resist the new wood. Known for his low yields and intensely concentrated Pinots (all but the Bourgogne raised in new barrels), Claude Dugat – with the increasing involvement of his son Bertrand – has rendered a formidable 2005 collection that makes no concessions to early charm. Importer: Robert Kacher Selections, Washington, DC; tel. (202) 832-9083.
Bright red-ruby. Rather masculine, brooding nose dominated by blackberry and licorice; little sign of surmaturite here. Concentrated and backward but somewhat angular and currently dominated by its structure; this is all shoulders today. Can't match the Charmes or Griottes for sheer depth, but there's lovely intensity of dark fruit flavor, and the long, fresh, aromatic finish stimulates the salivary glands.
This is as, if not more, elegant as the Griotte but with a different aromatic profile as here the nose runs more toward darker fruit and violet notes with refined, pure and beautifully detailed medium plus weight flavors that are not as big and powerful but actually finer, supported by dense but fine tannins on the delicious, intense and strikingly long finish. While this is not as powerful as either the Griotte or the Charmes, it packs plenty of punch in its own right.Allen Meadows, Burghound, Jan , 2007