2006 Gevrey Chambertin Lavaux St Jacques

Raphet's 80 year old vines have rendered a predictably strong and distinctive (four barrels' worth of) 2006 Gevrey-Chambertin Lavaux St.-Jacques. Peat and black tea on the nose segue into tart purple plum and dark cherry on a lean, tartly-edged, abundantly- but finely-tannic palate. As with several of the young Raphet 2006s, there is a slightly reductive aura about this, which encouraged more herbal pungency as well as smokiness and less sweetness of fruit until the wine has been given opportunity to take on some air. It finishes with concentrated pungency and thrust as well as lip-smacking freshness of fruit. I would give this at least 2-3 years in the bottle, and based on the track record for this bottling even in lighter and leaner vintages, I would anticipate at least a decade of useful life. The Raphet wines have always been marked by a wide divergence of quality and a reflection of conditions very much as nature presented them. The results in 2006 are relatively lightweight, with for the most part only bottlings from the characteristically top sites and vines of the domaine really asserting strong personalities (and a presumably hail-tainted and rather 1983-like village Gevrey being less than recommendable). Gerard Raphet says he picked consciously on the early side, and then quickly, boosting the alcohol levels on most wines slightly from their potentials in the low 12s. (For further information about Raphet and his sites, readers are urged to consult my report in issue 171.) Peter Vezan Selection (various importers), Paris; fax 011 33 1 42 55 42 93