2006 Lucien Le Moine Clos Saint-Denis Grand Cru

A slight reduction on the nose of the Saouma's 2006 Clos St.-Denis he thought might have been influenced by high CO2 content in a wine whose two barrels consistently take close to a year here just to alcoholically ferment. Fortunately, the wine throws off its reductive shackles with a good shaking and reveals bright cherry, lingonberry, and rhubarb aromas that translate on the palate into a sassy, invigoratingly tart, lip-smacking fruit presence, accompanied by black tea smokiness. This spreads out - viscously, silkenly yet buoyantly - across the palate and against the background of a palpably dense sense of chalk, salt, marrow, and stone, finishing with vibratory interactive intensity and irresistible clarity and class. "There was too much fruit" on the vines in 2006, opines Mounir Saouma, "and at the same time too much tannin in the fruit." Early pickers therefore, in his opinion, risked getting "lots of primary flavors, but wines that weren't serious. So we started the aging process asking ourselves how we will make this wine less tannic and more serious. After malolactic," which is always late here, "the wines changed completely. But the bigger mistake in 2006 was to bottle early" - something which also never happens at this address - "because the wines needed some time on their lees to extract sweetness and depth, and for all of their elements to come together." The results this year here are spectacular, and need not shy from comparison with their very different 2005 predecessors. Note that with a few significant exceptions there are usually only 1-2 barriques (25-50 cases) of any given Lucien Le Moine wine. Also, despite the number of them I tasted, that did not comprise by any means the entire collection (a circumstance I have taken pains to remedy with 2007). For further details on Le Moine's proprietors and methodology - which, once again this year, included a significant amount of vinification with stems - consult my report in issue 171. Importer: Vintus, Pleasantville, NY; tel. (919) 769-3000