2006 Nuits St Georges Les Perrieres

A 2006 Nuits-St.-Georges Les Perrieres - as with other wines in this collection, very much following a site-typical pattern - offers both a brighter berry fruit (suggesting black raspberry and Maine blueberry) and a more overt sense of minerality (suggestions of chalk and crushed stone) than its predecessors in the present Chevillon line-up. The firmness of tannin here results in a faint hint of drying and abrasion in the finish, however, which I am inclined to suspect might be a temporary post-bottling (encompassing - at this address - post-filtration) phenomenon. This needs re-assessment in 2010 if one is to more securely prognosticate about its further bottle evolution, although as noted in introducing this collection, the track record chez Chevillon - very much including that of this wine - is formidable. Given the superb track record of this estate's wines even in perceived weak and/or youthfully generous vintages - I think, for example, of the youthfully delicious 1992s I purchased at deeply-discounted prices and only recently finished enjoying - it would be foolish to admonish Burgundy lovers to drink their 2006s up early. Nevertheless, like so many of the best wines of this vintage, they are for the most part already on call - or very soon will be - to deliver generously. Bertrand Chevillon reports that little sorting was required above the level of village wines (the team here began picking Pinot September 22), and that while alcoholic fermentation was unusually protracted, the course of elevage from the standpoint of human interaction was unexceptional, save for backing off a pit on pigeage. Importer: Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA; tel. (510) 524-1524