2000 Chambolle Musigny Les Charmes Vieilles Vignes

Magnien’s 2000 Chambolle-Musigny Les Charmes exhibits a red and black berry-filled nose. A spicy, light to medium-bodied wine, it is concentrated, highly extracted, and tannic. Blackberry and french roast espresso beans explode on the taster’s palate, then recede, before returning with a vengeance in this offering’s edgy finish. Anticipated maturity: 2004-2009. A young, dynamic, hard-working man, Magnien feels 2001 “is what we in Burgundy like to call a classic vintage, whatever that means, it certainly did not reach the physiological maturity levels of 1997, 1999, or 2000.” He added that it was a year of “good surprises, given the weather. With intelligent green harvesting to correct the maturation spread due to the extremely long flowering, it was possible to have very nice fruit. The great surprise came after the malo-lactic fermentations, when the wines put on lots of fat. Yields were the same as 2000. There were 13 new moons in both years. The old-timers say that 13 moon vintages always produce betteraves (literally beets, in Burgundian slang it means huge fruit clusters), and they’ve been proven right once again.” Importer: David Hinkle / Peter Vezan, North Berkeley Imports, Berkeley, CA; tel. (800) 266-6585