2005 Domaine Mugneret-Gibourg Echézeaux Grand Cru

The 2005 Echezeaux (also from barrel) offers aromas of fresh black raspberry and black cherry, heady, sweet florality, and pungent ginger spice. Hints of cedar and vanilla signal a touch of overt oakiness. Brisk fruit juiciness and bloody raw meat mingle on a palate that is firm though fine in tannin and salty in its overt mineral character, and this finishes with a reprise of flowers, black fruits, raw meat and mineral but less precision at least today than several of the others . The Mugneret sisters (I take the liberty of heading this report with what is about to become their official, unified domaine name) have rendered a 2005 collection illustrating the chiseled-precision, complexity, refinement and restraint for which their wines are famous. They were still trying to coax their Bourgogne through malo at the time of my visit incidentally, and it was too gaseous to properly assess (although it showed very promisingly pre-malo). A Peter Vezan Selection (various importers), Paris; fax 011 33 1 42 55 42 93.

Bright ruby-red. Blackberry, minerals and menthol on the brooding, inky nose. Penetrating, powerful black fruit flavors are currently a bit tough and lacking in charm despite the wine's bright framing acidity. This is almost painfully unevolved and primary today, and dominated by its tannic spine. This is not the only 2005 Echezeaux in this muscular, dark fruit style. Hard to assess today, but precise, powerful and built to age.