2006 Morey St Denis Les Millandes

Deeper and healthier in color than the corresponding village wine, Raphet's 2006 Morey-St.-Denis Les Millandes smells of ripe plum and cassis; shows a bit of resin, caramel, and toasted praline from its (50%) new wood – an unusual phenomenon at this address; and finishes with an active interplay of pungently herbal, sweetly dark-fruited and wood notes. (Had there been more than two barrels' worth of wine, Raphet would have chosen a lower percentage of new barrels!) This well-concentrated cru should particularly reward service over the coming half dozen years. The Raphet wines have always been marked by a wide divergence of quality and a reflection of conditions very much as nature presented them. The results in 2006 are relatively lightweight, with for the most part only bottlings from the characteristically top sites and vines of the domaine really asserting strong personalities (and a presumably hail-tainted and rather 1983-like village Gevrey being less than recommendable). Gerard Raphet says he picked consciously on the early side, and then quickly, boosting the alcohol levels on most wines slightly from their potentials in the low 12s. (For further information about Raphet and his sites, readers are urged to consult my report in issue 171.) Peter Vezan Selection (various importers), Paris; fax 011 33 1 42 55 42 93