2005 Domaine François Bertheau Bonnes Mares Grand Cru

The Bertheau 2005 Bonnes Mares displays incense and smoke on the nose, along with herbal concentrate and bitter-sweet black raspberry and cassis. A savage raw berry intensity takes over on the palate, over which a load of salt, chalk, and finely-grained tannin are subsequently spread. This finishes with smoky, smoldering intensity along with moss, peat, and a decidedly bitter side of black fruits and herbs. I’m prepared to believe it might be suffering slightly from its recent bottling and capable of more charming generosity at some point in the next few weeks. Certainly it is a wine to cellar for 6-8 years if not longer. 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