2006 Grands Echezeaux

The Potel 2006 Grands-Echezeahtly-cooked strawberry, rhubarb, and red currant; grilled meats; and wood smoke. It displays a fat and textural richness that compliment its full, expansive palate. Pungently resinous and bitter fruit pit notes add complexity to the finish. There is a certain rusticity of tannin here, but to some extent that comes with much of the Clos Vougeot terroir. I suspect this will be worth following for 6-8 years. The Potel 2006 Grands-Echezeaux represents just two barrels (from different sources). Pungently ginger- and cinnamon-tinged cherry and red raspberry in the nose reach liqueur-like richness and intensity on the palate. Hints of smoky black tea and faded flowers add aromatic and inner-mouth intrigue, and a low-toned sense of char and crushed stone adds depth. This boasts very fine-grained tannins and a lingering, multi-registered finish. It should be worth following for at least a decade. Nicolas Potel consistently favors promoting ripeness at low potential alcohol and consistently eschews chaptalization. He is also a fan of freshness and clarity in Pinot, while maintaining notably low levels of sulfur. A vintage where a significant share of fruit came in near or above 14% potential alcohol and was shadowed by botrytis was thus a challenge, which seems to have been selectively well met. (For more on the style and methods associated with Maison Nicolas Potel – whose wines are sourced from a mixture of contract fruit and purchased juice – consult my report in issue 171.) Despite the huge number of 2006s I tasted here, incidentally, they did not represent the entire Potel vintage collection. In May, 2009, Potel left the negociant firm that bears his name (and which belongs to the Cottin brothers, owners of Laboure-Roi) to devote himself entirely to his own domaine and negociant operation, Maison Roche de Bellene, which crushed its first grapes with the 2007 vintage (in part from Potel holdings that were showcased in Maison Potel bottlings of vintages 2005 and 2006). Long-time cellarmaster Fabrice Lesne has now assumed direction of Maison Potel. By the way, suggested retail prices for the 2006s here took a sharp downturn vis-a-vis those for the 2005s, an occurrence worth noting for its rarity. (That said, of course the effective, eventual retail prices for all 2006s have turned on market factors that transcended cellar door prices, let alone the parameters envisioned by national importers). Importer: Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York, NY; tel. (212) 355-0700