2005 Chambolle Musigny Vieilles Vignes

The 2005 Chambolle-Musigny Vieilles Vignes – from three diverse parcels – mingles mint, flowers, fresh black raspberry, kirsch distillate and raw meat. Silken and polished on the palate, this follows with fresh, juicy raspberry and cherry to the fore with fruit pit, chalk dust and brown spice adding highly persistent complexity. Vincent Geantet as usual bottled well before year’s end, and his wines seemed to be having a particularly expressive, fruit-filled day when I tasted. Interestingly, much as he bottles all of his wines together, so, Geantet’s barrel regimen is the same regardless of appellation: one-third each of new, one-year and two-year wood. He prolonged the pre-fermentative maceration to eight days, which seems to have enhanced the brightness of fruit exhibited by these wines. I must say I did not come prepared for quite such an impressive collection as that which Geantet delivered. Importer: Kysela Pere et Fils, Winchester, VA; tel. (540) 722 9228

Good red-ruby color. Reticent but pure blackberry aroma. Fat, broad and sweet; in a distinctly ripe style, with black fruit flavors dominating. Conveys the low-acid, slightly heavy impression I find in a number of village Chambolles in 2005. But certainly broad and lush on the back, with slightly dusty tannins. This seems shocked by the recent bottling.