2005 Beaune Greves

In bottle for only ten days, the 2005 Beaune Greves offers bright, fresh black raspberry aromas backed by floral and crushed stone suggestions. It manifests excellent intensity and brightness, a very active personality, and a stark contrast with the sweet, creamy richness of the Clos de la Figuine. There is a flattering glyceral component but the fruit is crystal clear and transparent, and a shimmering complexity of mineral and floral nuances comes through despite a slight perturbation from the recent bottling. Nearly all bottlings from this negociant – on an upward path since the influx of Rodet capital in the early ‘90s – in fact originate in the Domaine Jacques Prieur. Martin Prieur and his team have striven to capture purity of fruit through gentle extraction, although for my taste I found some of their 2005s overly confectionary due to the influence of toasty new wood on already very sweetly ripe raw material. After malo – which was generally quite late here this year – the wines were sulfured but not yet racked. Importer: Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York, NY; tel. (212) 355-0700.

Deep ruby-red. Primary aromas of black raspberry, dark cherry, violet and minerals. Suave on entry, then juicy and tight in the middle, with relatively unevolved flavors of black fruits and violet. This one finished its malolactic fermentation later than the Clos de la Feguine and is considerably more backward. Finishes aromatic, firmly tannic and long.