2005 Domaine Ghislaine Barthod Chambolle-Musigny Les Veroilles 1er Cru

Barthod’s 2005 Chambolle-Musigny Les Veroilles (of which there will be 150 cases) leads with a Nebbiolo-like bouquet of violets, blond tobacco and black tea with distilled cherry high-tones, all atop an aromatic base of blackberry and purple plum that take on liqueur-like dimensions as the wine overruns the palate. Inner-mouth florality and honeyed, spicy accents add exotic allure to an already intense fruit appeal. While fat in its ripe fruit presentation, this wine boasts a boatload of fine tannins and a palpable sense of mineral extract, finishing with cherry, blackberry, plum, horehound, pepper, honey, chocolate, tobacco and chalk that left me chewing the air afterward. Give this at least 8-10 years rest and expect many more of enjoyment. Sharing expanded wine-making facilities with her husband, Louis Boillot, Gislaine Barthod continues to render some of the purest, most expressively fruity and consistently excellent as well as ageworthy Pinots in Burgundy. All but the Bourgogne and village Chambolle – recently assembled in tank – were tasted from barrel.

Bright, full ruby-red. Very ripe aromas of black raspberry, maraschino cherry, minerals and dark chocolate, lifted by notes of flowers and crushed rocks. Dense and silky in the mouth, with outstanding energy to the dark fruit and violet flavors. Impeccably balanced wine with a powerful structure. Wonderfully enveloping and aromatic on the back half, finishing with black cherry, spice and pepper elements and a strong impression of chewy extract. This is as promising a young wine as I've tasted to date in this cellar, but it will need a good decade of cellaring.