2009 Chambertin Vieilles Vignes

The 2009 Chambertin comes across as round, sensual and totally understated. Sweet, perfumed notes are woven throughout, giving the wine much of its finesse and delicateness. This is a striking effort, although I get the strong sense the wine's best days are off in the future.

The 2009 Chambertin comes across as round, sensual and totally understated. Sweet, perfumed notes are woven throughout, giving the wine much of its finesse and delicateness. This is a striking effort, although I get the strong sense the wine’s best days are off in the future. Anticipated maturity: 2019-2029. I was deeply impressed with Christophe Perrot-Minot’s 2009s. The wines are rich and powerful in the Perrot-Minot style, yet also shine with tons of energy. New oak was 20% for the village level wines, 30% for the premier crus and 30-50% for the grand crus, topping out at 50% for the Chambertin. Importer: Martine’s Wines. Novato, CA; tel. (415) 883-040

Good bright red-ruby. Cool, highly complex nose offers blackberry, cassis, crushed rock, smoke, earth, cocoa powder, mocha and menthol; there's little in the way of warm-vintage character showing today. Compellingly rich and sweet, but with harmonious acidity keeping the mid-palate remarkably vibrant for the year. This is both larger and more demonstrative than the Clos de Beze. Stains the palate on the back end, closing with lovely violet perfume. This has the structure of a big Bordeaux.