1985 Charmes Chambertin

The Charmes-Chambertin is loaded with seductive qualities. An open-knit, fabulous bouquet of toasty oak, flowers, berry fruit, and oriental spices is followed by a wine that is very concentrated, long, lush, and exciting. This is one of the finest estates in Burgundy. Unfortunately, not everyone in America understands these wines, particularly those restaurants and lazy merchants who are at a loss to explain the positive quality of wines with sandy sediment in the bottle. Seysses will not filter his wines, and after six months to several years, depending on the vintage, a fine sediment will form-a natural occurrence in handmade wines. Such wines are also very vulnerable to heat prostration because they are alive. Perhaps America's fanatical obsession with squeaky-clean, crystal-clear bottles of wines that have had much of their flavor eviscerated by numerous sterile filtrations is why Seysses now only sells 20% of his crop to America. What a tragedy! His 1985s are the finest wines he has made in an already illustrious career, greater even than his glorious 1978s. One can make no mistake with Dujac's 1985s, provided the importers ship them properly. The trek to the West Coast through the Panama Canal offers great danger for unfiltered wines unless the importers use temperature controlled "reefer" containers.