2005 Nuits St Georges Les Pruliers

Eighty-year-old vines inform the 2005 Nuits-St.-Georges Les Pruliers which, like Boillot’s Cherbaudes, expresses simultaneously fresh and liqueur-like expressions of black fruits, accented by mint, vanilla, pungent florality, tart fruit skin and bitter fruit pit notes. A rich mouthful of forward, sweet ripe fruit is underlain by refined tannins and this finishes long and polished, with an alliance of formidable intensity with elegance and no superfluous weight. I’m sure this will age well for more than a decade, but it might prove downright irresistible on many prior occasions. Also recommended: 2005 Fixin (unknown; 85-87). Having moved from Volnay to a newly-expanded facility he shares with his wife, Ghislaine Barthod, Louis Boillot fields a large and geographically diverse range of generally impressive, pure-fruited Pinots. (In rating them, I have left some leeway to allow for my previous unfamiliarity with Louis Boillot’s wines.) Importer: Rosenthal Wine Merchant, Pine Plains, NY; tel. (800) 910-1990.