2005 Griotte Chambertin

The 2005 Griotte-Chambertin is even brighter and spicier as well as more intense in its pure cherry fruit character than this year’s Charmes. Cherry, cranberry, mint and brown spices in the nose lead to a juicy, fresh-fruited, fruit-pit accented, and overtly chalky palate. Ultra-refined in tannins, this wine – one of several, incidentally, that were vinified with a significant portion of whole clusters – mounts an impressive drive for the finish, scoring blazing fruit intensity and mineral persistence. These 2005s were bottled around two months earlier than usual, says Frederic Drouhin, to retain freshness. (Long-time oenologue Laurence Jobard, incidentally, was replaced this year by Jerome Faure-Brac.) As is always the case, fruit from a great many properties owned or accessed by Drouhin is declassified and blended out, leaving only selected terroirs as the subjects of single-site bottlings. (In 2004, for example, even the Beaune Clos des Mouches – due to hail – was declassified into lip-smacking, remarkably soothing Cote de Beaune.) That said, as befits the quality of 2005, there were more individual bottlings from this vintage than is usual, and I did not taste all of them. (Wines from the Drouhin domaine holdings display a “D” in their listing.) This year’s collection radiates class from top to bottom. Even Drouhin’s ubiquitous, 25,000-case generic “Laforet” displays tender, ripe cherry fruit, a silky palate and iodine-like minerality. Also recommended: 2005 Bourgogne Laforet ($14.00;85). Importer: Dreyfus-Ashby & Co., New York, NY; tel. (212) 818 0770

(from 1980 and 1985 plantings) Medium red. Tangy aromas of raspberry, cherry, smoke and earth; as with some other examples from this vineyard, this smells like Chambolle. Then compellingly sappy and vibrant in the mouth, with intense flavors of sweet red fruits and minerals and a tactile impression of extract. Broad and rich on the back end, with the flavors taking a turn toward blacker fruits and violet. Superb for this cuvee