2006 Chambolle Musigny
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Tasting notes
Lachaux reports that 40% of the acreage that informs his 2006 Chambolle-Musigny was hailed-on. Considering that circumstance, it displays relatively refined tannins, but there is a sweet-tart bifurcation here with acerbic fruit skin notes playing against a sense of high but precarious ripeness (accompanied by considerable volatility) that I do not envision knitting. Nevertheless, there are also attractive inner-mouth florality and a vivacious sense of acidity, as well as a savory, broth-like sense of meat stock concentration, and the wine certainly doesn't lack for concentration. Perhaps it will outgrow its slightly ungainly and divisive stage, although I'm skeptical. Pascal Lachaux – who subscribes to the prevalent notion that this vintage reflects elements of 2000 and 2002 – is one of the very few red Burgundy growers (Rouget another) whose 2006s strike me as outclassing their 2005s. It's possible that his having had a prior vintage to become accustomed to the opportunities afforded by his spacious new, gravity flow cellar contributed to his success this year. And it's of course also possible that I have under- or over-rated one of these vintages. Lachaux – who defends 2005 as one of his best-ever collections – concurs in finding each 2006 typical for its site as well as more expressive than his 2005s have thus far been, and in the observation that these 2006s improve as they open to the air, suggesting to me considerable longer-term cellaring potential than one can expect from most wines of the vintage. Importer: Rosenthal Wine Merchant, Pine Plains, NY; tel. (800) 910-1990
Critic scores
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David Schildknecht, Vinous
Julia Harding MW, jancisrobinson.com
More reviews and scores
(Lachaux told me he owns seven high-altitude parcels "around Amoureuses") Saturated medium red. Cool, stony nose shows a medicinal cast. Supple and sweet on entry, then stony and firm-edged in the middle, with a suggestion of iron. Fresh but quite dry. This tastes less ripe than most of the other Arnoux '06s (from the effect of hail?).
Fragrant linctus-like cherry notes, a little peppery. Bright crunchy cherry fruit, wonderfully fresh and still pretty tight. Very silky even now. (JH)
Lachaux reports that 40% of the acreage that informs his 2006 Chambolle-Musigny was hailed-on. Considering that circumstance, it displays relatively refined tannins, but there is a sweet-tart bifurcation here with acerbic fruit skin notes playing against a sense of high but precarious ripeness (accompanied by considerable volatility) that I do not envision knitting. Nevertheless, there are also attractive inner-mouth florality and a vivacious sense of acidity, as well as a savory, broth-like sense of meat stock concentration, and the wine certainly doesn't lack for concentration. Perhaps it will outgrow its slightly ungainly and divisive stage, although I'm skeptical. ||Pascal Lachaux – who subscribes to the prevalent notion that this vintage reflects elements of 2000 and 2002 – is one of the very few red Burgundy growers (Rouget another) whose 2006s strike me as outclassing their 2005s. It's possible that his having had a prior vintage to become accustomed to the opportunities afforded by his spacious new, gravity flow cellar contributed to his success this year. And it's of course also possible that I have under- or over-rated one of these vintages. Lachaux – who defends 2005 as one of his best-ever collections – concurs in finding each 2006 typical for its site as well as more expressive than his 2005s have thus far been, and in the observation that these 2006s improve as they open to the air, suggesting to me considerable longer-term cellaring potential than one can expect from most wines of the vintage. Wine Advocate.December, 2009