2005 Nuits St Georges Les Proces

Entering the realm of premier crus (and passing from one-third to 50% new wood), Lachaux’s 2005 Nuits-St.-Georges Les Proces (from a tiny cru just southwest of town) offers ripe black cherry tinged with sweet spices and hints of barrel in the nose. On the palate, it reveals juicy refinement, creaminess, restrained vanillin, smoke and oak spice, brothy, stock-pot meatiness, and bitter-sweet black fruits. Notes of spinach, toasted nuts and nutmeg further inform a fundamentally bitter-sweet (and perhaps as yet not entirely knitted) finish. Also recommended: 2005 Bourgogne (85). Pascal Lachaux (the late Robert Arnoux’s son-in-law, who has been in charge here now for nearly two decades) had just bottled his 2005 collection – vinified in his superb, recently-completed, gravity-fed facilities – when I visited. Lachaux compares the proper watchword of the winemaker in a vintage with Pinot as healthy and naturally-concentrated as in 2005, to that of a chef confronted with a perfect piece of fish: restraint. That also describes the results he has achieved in bottle, although allowance should be made for the possibility that the expression of certain wines was restrained by their recent bottling. mporter: Rosenthal Wine Merchant, Pine Plains, NY; tel. (800) 910-1990.

Bright red-ruby. Reduced nose hints at smoke, spice and flowers. Dense, fine-grained and sweet in the mouth, with vibrant black cherry and licorice flavors and a positive medicinal character. This is atypically silky and pliant-more Vosne-like than usual-for this normally more strict cuvee Finishes strong and long, with ripe tannins.

Smoky, super-ripe black fruits. Lots of acidity. Quite nervy. Very structured. Should not disappoint. (JR)