2006 Vosne Romanee Les Suchots

Grivot's 2006 Vosne Romanee Les Suchots is enticingly scented with ripe blackberry and black raspberry, black tea, peat, black truffles, and iris. While that's literally a dark litany, and while the aforementioned elements flood onto this Pinot's sumptuous and texturally silken palate, the effect is metaphorically anything but dark, possessing not only refreshment to accompany its sense of sweetness and richness, but also an uncanny sense of lift and dynamic. This should be a joy to follow over the next decade or more. "For me, the virtues of 2006 are freshness, reflection of terroir, minerality, and enormous vinosity. It is an accessible vintage," says Etienne Grivot, quickly signifying that "accessible" should on no account be taken pejoratively, or as excluding cerebral appeal. His aim to reinforce these characteristics by very gentle extraction has proven highly successful. Grivot says that since his experience in 2004 he is determined to chaptalize only extremely lightly – to extend fermentations a bit – if at all, because he believes that depressing finished levels of alcohol will other things being equal promote more expressive and elegant wines. He finds the frequent comparisons of 2006 to a cross between 2000 and 2001 reasonably apt. Incidentally, prices dropped a bit here in the 2006 vintage, an especially welcome move when one considers the high quality of the wines, not to mention the prestige of this estate. Importer: Diageo Chateau and Estate Wines Company, New York, NY; tel. (212) 419-1400