2005 Chambolle Musigny Beaux Bruns

Mortet’s 2005 Chambolle-Musigny Aux Beaux Bruns was somewhat reduced and required a good shaking to coax out its decadent florality, raw meatiness, and caramel- and mocha-tinged black fruit character. Silky and refined in texture, its finish leads with bloody meat and persists with flowers and spicy-sweet notes of oak. Mortet says he was trying to back off more on the extraction to emphasize the (supposed) more delicate typicity of Chambolle, but he might have done well to back off on the new wood as well. Racking and bottling will see this take on more definitive shape. Taking over this domaine in his mid-twenties, Arnaud Mortet appears poised to bottle a superb collection from his father’s final harvest. The crew took a brief second pass over certain parcels, he relates, and the bunches from some young vines required triage, but otherwise the fruit was perfect at first picking. Malolactic fermentations continued well into last autumn. Mortet emphasizes that he will continue a search for elegance and refinement begun in recent years, with a lighter touch during fermentation, and at least for vintage 2006 the employment of some previously-used barrels in order to de-emphasize wood at the modest end of his price spectrum. Importer: Martine’s Wines, Novato, CA; tel. (415) 883-0400.