2006 Nuits St Georges Les Pruliers

Black raspberry and plum, along with toasted pecan scent the Chevillon 2006 Nuits-St.-Georges Pruliers, which then comes to the palate with more restrained sweetness of fruit and more overt suggestions of minerality - wet stone and iodine - than other Chevillon 2006s. Firmness of tannin is noticeable here, but unlike with the Perrieres, that does not dry or coarsen the finish. This will benefit from a couple of years in bottle, I'm sure, and ought to then be worth following for at least another half dozen. Given the superb track record of this estate's wines even in perceived weak and/or youthfully generous vintages - I think, for example, of the youthfully delicious 1992s I purchased at deeply-discounted prices and only recently finished enjoying - it would be foolish to admonish Burgundy lovers to drink their 2006s up early. Nevertheless, like so many of the best wines of this vintage, they are for the most part already on call - or very soon will be - to deliver generously. Bertrand Chevillon reports that little sorting was required above the level of village wines (the team here began picking Pinot September 22), and that while alcoholic fermentation was unusually protracted, the course of elevage from the standpoint of human interaction was unexceptional, save for backing off a pit on pigeage. Importer: Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA; tel. (510) 524-1524