2006 Gevrey Chambertin Vieilles Vignes

Esmonin's deeply-colored 2006 Gevrey-Chambertin Vieilles Vignes – which includes fruit from hailed-on vines in Clos Prieur – really rushes directly to the dark side, with scents and flavors of blackberry, mulberry, peat, iodine, tar, licorice, roasted meat, and wet stone. We're up to around 70% new wood here, but that's not noticeable amid the concentration of myriad other flavors. Firm, but fine grained – with an ample ameliorative measure of glycerin – this finishes impressively long, with notes of black pepper and charred red meat adding piquancy and pungency to the aforementioned sinister litany of flavors. It should be deeply fascinating for at least the better part of a decade, but I would hold off opening a bottle until at least 2011. Sylvie Esmonin organized a rigorous triage of her crop in early September. Even then, she put off harvesting until almost the end of that month and had to contend with rigorous table-sorting to insure healthy fruit. Potential alcohol levels hovered around 13%, and Esmonin says she vinified to emphasize aroma and finesse, which included employing a significant portion of vendange entier. Her grandfather, Esmonin noted, spoke about the cleansing and purgative aspects of incorporating the stems precisely in a difficult vintage, and she says her own first experiment in this regard was with a Volnay in 2000, based on a spontaneous decision made in the vineyard and in recollection of her grandfather's admonition. The result, she maintains, was healthier color and fruit flavors than she would otherwise have obtained. Importer: Louis/Dressner Selections, New York, NY; tel. (212) 334-8191