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

The 2005 Chambolle-Musigny Charmes offers the nose a mixture of black cherry, high-toned red currant and lingonberry, and hints of wood smoke and resin (not from new wood – none was used on this cru). Pronounced fruit pit bitterness and tartness of skins along with clear juiciness fill the mouth, where a more obvious, doughy sense of substantiality, overt chalkiness, and carnal character are present than in the other Bertheau wines. The apparent trade-off is that one misses the floral complexities of the village wine or in particular the blended premier cru. The finish is imposingly chalky, salty and dense, with subtle animality, plenty of fruit concentration, and abundant but refined tannins. This wants for at least 3-5 years in bottle, I suspect, whereas its predecessors – while they too might benefit – are hard to resist already. 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