2006 Le Montrachet

This bottle was perfectly fresh, but has a touch of this peculiar vintage’s characteristic blandness. It bears similarities to the 2009, albeit more savoury and less demonstrative. Alcohol is under control but acid feels low, which is probably why the texture is pappy and the finish sags a bit: not what you want in a Montrachet. (AH)

Flowers, peach, and nut oils are dramatically front and center in the Lafon 2006 Montrachet as well. Here is the one overtly creamy wine in this collection, yet it doesn’t in the least lack for ripe citrus juiciness. This lacks the sense of dynamic felt in the Perrieres, but is somehow both statuesque and at the same time ethereal and cloud-like. Suggestions of minerality here have near-sweetness, like fresh scallops or a lobster shell reduction. A virtually indelible finish suggests distilled floral essences, nut oils, ginger, and crustacean. Too bad there are a mere four barrels of this stunning elixir. The penetration of herbal distillates and citrus oil; seductively sweet gardenia florality; bittersweet nuttiness; and an astonishing combination of super-ripeness and verve, all place the 2005 in the same exalted class. Like his neighbor Jean-Marc Roulot, Benoit Ente in Puligny, and a few others, Dominique Lafon obtained authorization to begin picking several days ahead of the official ban de vendange. He set his crew to work over the weekend, and was finished already on the 20th of September. The Perrieres, picked first, reached 13.8% alcohol, but all of the other wines weighed in at lower levels. Lafon insisted – and his wines testified – that the Chardonnay grapes were botrytis free, and he characterized the lees as excellent in quality and practiced “less settling than I did in the past.” That restraint – along with bright acids and pronounced minerality – makes for a richness that often expresses itself other than in creaminess. As these wines evolved, Lafon became increasingly enthusiastic about them, and I found them much more expressive on the eve of bottling than they had been in late 2007. Incidentally, the sickly vines in Lafon’s Desiree vineyard that have given so much bottled pleasure over the years gave their last in the beautifully refined, bittersweet, and for the vintage unusually delicate and creamy 2005. “It tastes as though the vines knew they were going to be pulled out,” was Lafon’s valediction. A Becky Wasserman Selection, Le Serbet (various importers), fax 011-33-3-80-24-29-70; A Daniel Johnnes Selection imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, NY, tel. (516) 677 9300; Classic Wine Imports, Norwood, MA, tel. (781) 352 1100; Beaune Imports, Berkeley, CA, tel. (510) 559 1040

(moved into tank the day prior to my visit) Deep, broad nose combines wet stone, white flowers, coconutty oak and a whiff of dried fruits, all lifted by brown spices. Huge, dense and thick but with a gravity-defying impression of weightlessness. Incredibly rich and chewy yet seamless wine. The explosive, endless finish saturates the palate with flavors of wet stone and iodine. This was from late-picked fruit.