2006 Griotte Chambertin

The Domaine Drouhin 2006 Griotte-Chambertin required especially rigorous selection and gentle extraction, largely as a legacy of hail, opines Veronique Drouhin-Boss, and it seems to have paid off. A healthy ruddy color is matched by flavors of fresh sour cherry and red raspberry wreathed in narcissus and herbs, and leading to a bright, invigorating finish with undertones of sandalwood, salt, beef marrow, moss, and chalk. This might not be the last word in ripeness or be especially texturally rich, but it is full of energy and grand cru in its sheer, penetrating persistence. There is something a bit white wine or Riesling-like about it, no doubt an indirect result of the hail and thus of the vinificatory approach taken. Drouhin did not attempt to bottle a wine from their hail-ravaged Clos de Beze. "I was skeptical when the harvest came," says Philippe Drouhin about 2006, "because the weather had been so hectic; we had to sort the grapes; and it was not as nice as '05. But the more I tasted the '06s in the course of the year, the more I liked them." Winemaker Jerome Faure-Brac says he was hyper-cautious about avoiding the extraction of bitterness or under-ripeness, and employed vendange entier (whole clusters with stems) on a significant share of the grands (and top premiers) crus, but only in conjunction with rigorous table-sorting. Most came in at 13-13.5% potential alcohol. The wines were bottled about as early as they ever have been at Drouhin, to preserve and avoid drying out the fruit. (Just as elsewhere in this report, I have frequently indicated in my tasting note whether the source of grapes is the family's domaine or contract fruit, but have not attempted to reflect this as part of the descriptions used to identify the wines.) Importer: Dreyfus-Ashby & Co., New York, NY; tel. (212) 818-0770