2006 Domaine Latour-Giraud Meursault Les Genevrières 1er Cru

The diverse intimations of minerals in the preceding Latour-Giraud wines culminate in a 2006 Meursault Genevrieres that stretches one's vocabulary. Salts, chalk, and iodine (for lack of better words) all vie for attention with fresh lemon; ripe peach and yellow plum; and lightly toasted almond and hazelnut. Penetrating, and attractively lean, yet with the characteristic ripeness of the vintage and plenty of depth, this looks poised to develop well in bottle over the next 8-10 years. The good news for consumers is that this beauty along with the village-level cuvee represents by far the largest lot of Latour-Giraud wine. I found the impressively-concentrated and overtly mineral 2005 if anything more backward when tasted side by side. Jean-Pierre Latour was one of those growers who got a jump on the 2006 ban de vendange in an effort to preserve freshness and clarity of fruit (although on that score, he professes to prefer his 2005s). The 2006 collection was slow to ferment and to undergo malo-lactic transformation; and from tank immediately before bottling, many wines struck me as somewhat disjointed and/or awkwardly marked by milk and new wood. Various importers, including Bayfield Importing, Long Island, NY (718)482 0200; Classic Wine Imports, Norwood, MA, tel. (781) 352 1100; and Stacole Fine Wines, Boca Raton, FL; tel. (561) 998 0029