2006 Vosne Romanee Les Suchots

(from a magnum that was brought directly from the domaine to an event in Burgundy). Like many '06s today, the brooding if pretty and elegant nose is decidedly reticent. The sleekly muscular and intense flavors possess fine mid-palate density as well as first-rate depth on the sneaky long, balanced and markedly firm finish where the only nit is a hint of warmth. This is still very, very young and a wine that is going to require at least another decade of cellaring before it's ready for prime time drinking.

The Liger-Belair 2006 Vosne Romanee Les Suchots displays a surprisingly slightly developed hint of garnet in color; and a dark – and to that degree site-typical – palate shading, with faintly cooked black fruits, forest floor, and pungent black pepper. This finishes broadly, sweetly, and caressingly, its tannins either melted or submerged under the fruit. I'd personally like to experience a bit more vivacity and lift, but this is Pinot and 2006 in their softly enveloping mode, and impressive in those terms. How will it age? I wonder: it seems so drinkable and evolved now. Louis-Michel Liger-Belair reported higher potential alcohol levels this year than in 2005, but also maintains that the nature of the ambient yeasts in 2006 accounted for a thankfully inefficient conversion, so that finished alcohols were not noticeably higher. Triage in his cellars, he maintains, was and will in future vintages remain "two to three percent," thanks to restriction of yields and meticulous vine management. Liger-Belair remains a proponent of gentle extraction but high levels of new wood. What I misleadingly announced in issue 170 as "a new negociant side of the business" is in fact an arrangement whereby Liger-Belair himself farms around 15 acres that had previously been tended by a grower who once enjoyed a share-cropping arrangement with Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair (during the long period when their wines were pledged to Bouchard). Half of the acreage in question yields Bourgogne and is genuinely sold as a negociant project, but the rest will be treated to the domaine's vine-papering, biodynamic regimen, including the horse plowing of whose revival they were among the earliest and most conspicuous proponents. Liger-Belair reminds me, however, that it will take time for the effect of this attention to be felt. Beginning with this vintage also, all of the Liger-Belair monopole La Romanee and all of their Vosne Reignots are estate-bottled, none being sold any longer to Bouchard. A Becky Wasserman Selection (various importers), Le Serbet; fax 011-333-80-24-29-70

Sweet and surprisingly evolved nose. Very juicy and vital, racy stuff and very Vosne. Great balance. Good bottle? (JR)