2006 Musigny Vieilles Vignes

A lightly floral suffused nose is comprised by a still relatively primary airy, spicy and ripe mélange of red and blue pinot fruit that displays really lovely violet and rose petal note. There is an almost pungent minerality to the intense and overtly powerful large-bodied flavors that are beautifully proportioned and are blessed with ample amounts of dry extract on the impressive long and precise finish. Even at 17 years of age, this is still backward and very much on the way up, indeed it's going to need most of another decade to reach its apogee.

Firm, deep crimson, one of the bluest. Very fine. No bluster, just fruit and structure. Not flattering but very admirably true. Finishes very dry. Liquorice. Long. Real peacock’s tail. Really lovely. (JR)

Francois Millet thinks that there is considerable latent structure as well as aging potential in all of the De Vogue 2006s, and with the 2006 Musigny Vieilles Vignes both are evident. Diverse jellied berries, citrus oils, and floral perfumes indeed seductively fill the nose, and then flood a seamlessly refined palate. At the same time, a sense of chalky and saline minerality as well as marrowy meatiness mount into the finish, taking on further prominence as the wine opens to the air. On the one hand you feel as though you are watching the wafting of clouds of fruit and perfume; on the other the motion of tectonic plates beneath your palate. This superb Musigny is going to be a great source of metaphors over the next 15 or more years, and one could do worse than start with the familiar iron fist wrapped in velvet, because it fits this wine like a glove. Francois Millet is always keen to pinpoint the expression of fruit he finds in each vintage, and for him 2006 is an instance of "jellied" fruit character. I can certainly agree with him about the seductiveness of the vintage at this address, and his laconic comment on the communal hail – "not too problematic" – seems clearly born out by the quality this estate has achieved. (I unfortunately did not have chance to taste the de Vogue Amoureuses post-malo, so I must refrain from offering a note.) Imported by Dreyfus Ashby, New York, NY; tel. (212) 818-0770; also a Peter Vezan Selection (various importers), Paris; fax 011 33 1 42 55 42 93