2005 Maison Joseph Drouhin Grands-Echézeaux Grand Cru

Bright, deep red. Highly perfumed nose combines black fruits, licorice, rose petal and underbrush. Juicy and penetrating, with terrific definition, lift and cut. A wine of great delicacy and no excess weight. Finishes very long and juicy. Very suave and stylish wine, a classic example of the Drouhin style at its best.

Drouhin’s 2005 Grands-Echezeaux smells of black raspberry, wood smoke and cocoa powder, exhibits a tight, tart black raspberry fruit concentration underlain by charred meat and wet stone on the palate, and a vigorous, bright, intensely smoky, spicy finish. The vivid fresh raspberry and cherry character makes for a fascinating and alluring counterpoint to the wine’s lush, creamy texture and expansive palate presence. The tannins are ample yet unobtrusive. I would count on this being worth retaining in one’s cellar for 15 or more years. These 2005s were bottled around two months earlier than usual, says Frederic Drouhin, to retain freshness. (Long-time oenologue Laurence Jobard, incidentally, was replaced this year by Jerome Faure-Brac.) As is always the case, fruit from a great many properties owned or accessed by Drouhin is declassified and blended out, leaving only selected terroirs as the subjects of single-site bottlings. (In 2004, for example, even the Beaune Clos des Mouches – due to hail – was declassified into lip-smacking, remarkably soothing Cote de Beaune.) That said, as befits the quality of 2005, there were more individual bottlings from this vintage than is usual, and I did not taste all of them. (Wines from the Drouhin domaine holdings display a “D” in their listing.) This year’s collection radiates class from top to bottom. Even Drouhin’s ubiquitous, 25,000-case generic “Laforet” displays tender, ripe cherry fruit, a silky palate and iodine-like minerality. Also recommended: 2005 Bourgogne Laforet ($14.00;85). Importer: Dreyfus-Ashby & Co., New York, NY; tel. (212) 818 0770