2006 Pommard Les Pezerolles

The Bouchard 2006 Pommard Pezerolles leads with an impressive sense of ripe but tart raspberry and cherry fruits mingled with beef stock, and transparent to crushed stone and iodine. This offers lift, cut, and refreshment, and while slightly austere in personality is impressively penetrating and fine-grained. I would anticipate it rewarding 4-6 years of attention. Director Philippe Prost emphasized the importance of flexible and surgical picking (with a crew numbering upwards of 300) and getting his crop to Bouchard's battery of presses within two hours via a fleet of mini-vans. He insists that relatively little triage was necessary on the domaine vineyards (as opposed to those under contract) and the estate wines are certainly predictably stronger as a group. (I have generally mentioned in the notes that follow which wines are from Bouchard's domaine and which from contract fruit, but have explicitly noted this as part of a wine's description, only if there are two versions of the same appellation within the present portfolio.) The fruit was crushed very gently and the wines racked only once – at 10-14 months, than usual – explains Prost, in order to guard against exposed or drying tannins, a policy which my tastings suggest was generally successful. Importer: Henriot, Inc, New York, NY; tel. (212) 605-6767