1995 Chambolle Musigny Les Amoureuses

Surprisingly, the spectacular Chambolle-Musigny Les Amoureuses is produced from 15 year old vines ... I look forward to tasting the quality wines made from this parcel in 20+ years! Aromatically it displays fabulously elegant waves of violets and small red berries. On the palate this awesome wine possesses a deep, powerful, and refined personality jam-packed with lush cherries, cassis and touches of mocha. Begging to be drunk right now, it will hit its peak between 2002-2010. This note is the result of tastings I did in Burgundy between January 7 and January 29. The wine was tasted from cask, not bottle. Pinot Noir, a fragile varietal, reacts poorly to fining, filtration, and careless bottling techniques, I recommend caution when considering buying a red burgundy based on cask samples. I called it as I tasted it, and hope the bottled wine reflects the quality of the samples I was provided. As I tasted through Drouhin's offerings of 1995 red burgundies, I was struck by just how differently each terroir expressed itself. Generally, in truly great vintages ('85 and '90 in Burgundy and '82 and '90 in Bordeaux), young reds, at least when young, tend to express vintage characteristics more than individual terroirs. 1995 is an outstanding vintage, just below the quality of '85 and '90. However, the terroir characteristics of the 1995s are very evident, especially at Maison Joseph Drouhin. Perhaps the tight, concentrated fruit that characterizes 1995 allows more room for the terroir to show itself (as opposed to '85 and '90's lush forward, expressive fruit). Importer: Dreyfus, Ashby & Co., New York, NY; tel: (212) 818-0770.