2007 Ruchottes Chambertin

Game; myriad lightly-cooked red fruits; caramelized, roasted root vegetables; and crushed stone dust render the nose and palate of the Mugnerets’ 2007 Ruchottes-Chambertin impressively complex, with ample primary fruit juiciness as well as saliva-inducing salinity helping the finish surmount slightly granular underlying tannins. This should prove profoundly satisfying over at least the next 8-10 years. The cool concentration and acid preservation of 2008 as a vintage would seem to mirror the finely-chiseled, fresh-fruited, modest alcohol style one associates with the Mugneret sisters, but the striking and surprising thing about their collection of that vintage is its youthful richness and textural allure. (The low-pH 2008s finished at only 12-12.5% alcohol.) As Marie-Christine Mugneret points out, they dropped crop to promote ripeness and drying and as a result were optimally positioned to take advantage of the September turn in the weather … optimally, that is, except in terms of yields! Most lots did not finish malo for a full year, and I tasted the wines in February at various stages (as noted) between barrel and bottle. “The sorting we did in early September in the vineyards in 2006 all had to be done on the sorting table in 2007,” remarks Marie-Andree Mugneret, explaining that ripening was too rapid in the latter vintage – in which they began picking September 1 – to permit such a triage at the vine. Despite the relatively swift malos and ripe fruit of 2007, bottling extended all the way until July of last year (for the Chaignots), but the Mugnerets share my view that the wines should for the most part be enjoyed relatively young in the flush of their fruit. A Peter Vezan Selection (various importers), Paris; fax 011 33 1 42 55 42 93

Good medium red. Nuanced nose combines pungent red berries, flowers and smoke. Juicy, energetic and sharply delineated, with almost magical cut and penetration for the year thanks to firm acids and pronounced minerality. Finishes long and vibrant, with plenty of sweet fruit to cover the firm tannins. I would never have picked this blind as a 2007.

(this year's cuvee is a blend of very old and seven-year-old vines) Good full red. Red berries, red cherry, minerals and licorice on the nose. Rich, round and supple but with a cool, restrained quality to the bitter cherry and floral flavors. A distinctly suave style-and not at all gamey. Finishes with sweet, dusty tannins, with sound acidity giving the back end a perfumed quality. There's plenty of material in reserve here. I actually tasted the two components of this wine followed by an approximation of the final blend. There was a big difference in depth and soil character, but the combination worked very well. In the 2002 through 2006 vintages the young vines were declassified into a Gevrey village wine as the grape sugars were too high, according to Marie-Christine Mugneret.