2006 Gevrey Chambertin Lavaux St Jacques

Deep red. Knockout nose offers blackberry, blueberry, violet, minerals and meat, along with a fresh whiff of menthol. Sweet, lush and seamless but with a distinctly cool peppery aspect preventing the wine from coming across as thick. Finishes with substantial dusty tannins and a repeating peppery quality. Very fresh and poised.

Dramatically mineral and carnal in its evocations of crushed stone, peat, and game, Bernard Dugat's 2006 Gevrey-Chambertin Lavaux St.-Jacques displays implosively intense tiny, dark- and blueberry concentration. Intensely sweet fruit is offset by invigorating chew of berry skin and soy-like salinity, and underlain by persistent stone and smoky peat. The tannins here are refined, and the resonant finish combines power and dark depth with energy and cut. Time will tell whether this acquires finesse, but it is sure to remain impressive for more than a dozen years, and I would be inclined not to revisit it before 2011. Jocelyne and Bernard Dugat insist that they each personally lead a select picking crew through their two tiny old parcels in this cru – one a strip near the Clos St.-Jacques and one high up and well into the Combe, near the Verroilles – which together yielded a mere 50 this year. ||As usual, Bernard Dugat prided himself on having been able to harvest ahead of the ban de vendange thanks to the intensity of his vineyard labors and to yields of around 25 hectoliters per hectare. (He also credits the accumulated effects of three years on a biodynamic regimen.) Potential alcohol was for the most part in the high 12s, and only a handful of cuvees were lightly chaptalized, Dugat reports. As usual, too, he employed significant percentages of whole clusters and stems in most wines. For further details on Bernard Dugat's approach, see my report in issue 170. Perhaps it hardly requires noting, but the prices of these wines continue to rise relentlessly, sadly but perhaps inevitably putting them out of the reach of most Burgundy lovers. And unfortunately, I did not get an opportunity to taste the two red appellation Bourgogne bottlings of this estate. Wine Advocate.December, 2009