2005 Gevrey Chambertin Aux Echezeaux

Good deep red. Roasted red berries, smoke, coffee and game on the nose. Sweet, round and fat, with darker flavors than the '06. Still relatively closed in the middle palate, but very long, round and sweet on the back. This, too, boasts impressive size.

Very fine racy aromatic, classical notes on the nose. Sumptuous ripe black fruits with real zest and a classical build. Lovely structure. Fine dry tannins on the finish. Fourrier himself describes this particular wine as 'frustratingly elegant because of its location'. I like it. (JR)

A 2005 Gevrey-Chambertin Aux Echezeaux (from vines on the Morey line, just south of Mazoyere-Chambertin) displays an unusual aromatic melange of flowers, red berries and herbal-medicinal concentrate, comes onto the palate with smoothness, refinement, polished tannins, creaminess, and subtle inner-mouth florality, but might want just a tad for cut or grip in its rather rarified, undeniably elegant finish. The articulate and opinionated Jean-Marie Fourrier staunchly believes in the inclusion of uncrushed fruit (to among other things prolong fermentation and, he claims, diminish the efficiency of alcoholic conversion); leaving the young wines on their lees (with high CO2 retention) eighteen months before bottling; employing a mere 20% of new barrels for all wines; and applying only minimal doses of sulfur. That the property from which he sources is all owned outright, and is largely in vines of over fifty years age planted by his father or grandfather before the days of clones certainly helps explain the consistently excellent quality at this address. Importer: Rosenthal Wine Merchant, Pine Plains, NY; tel. (800) 910-1990