2005 Domaine François Bertheau Chambolle-Musigny Les Amoureuses 1er Cru

Hints of wood smoke and incense curl from the glass of Bertheau 2005 Chambolle-Musingy Les Amoureuses over a rich base of black cherry, cassis and sultry florality. Once inside your mouth, this wine spreads a deep, low toned meatiness, faintly caramelized black fruits, cherry pit, toasted hickory and bitter-sweet flowers over a cool slab of stone. Talk about the “dark side” of Pinot or of 2005: a wine like this might explain the origin of an old Burgundian saying to the effect that a glass of Pinot is “a little of the night before you go into your long dark night.” Consult your psychiatrist, but I recommend permitting some of this formidably dense, finely-tannic, mysteriously brooding wine to reside in your cellar for 5-7 years. Pierre and Francois Bertheau render textbook Chambolle, which means that pinotphiles who crave extroverted richness or overt sex appeal may find them less compelling than I do. (The stylistically contrasting Chambolles of Perrot-Minot and Bertheau went right to the top of my own shopping list this vintage.) Interestingly, although only modestly saturated in color, all of Bertheau’s wines have that mysterious blackish hint at the rim that many old-timers will tell you is a distinctive mark of Pinot. The Chambolle and Chambolle 1er Cru are rotated out of their largely used barriques after the first year and rest for 3-4 months in large traditional fuders. All of the wines are bottled (unfiltered) at the same time, which in this instance was a mere two weeks before my late February visit. If they were laboring at all under the effects of this, then (with one exception) I would be amazed, because I find it hard to imagine a clearer, more distinct set of personalities in young Pinot. Importer: Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA; tel. (510) 524 1524