2006 Nuits St Georges Les Vaucrains

Pale-medium red. Perfumed, slightly exotic aromas of raspberry, flowers and meat. Sexy and sweet in the mouth, with complex flavors of ripe red raspberry, minerals, flowers and exotic spices. A captivating midweight that finishes scented and long, combining a deep berry sweetness with a sappy impression of weightlessness.

Good dark red. A tangy basket of fruits accented by bitter chocolate on the high-pitched nose. Ripe, tangy and dry, showing terrific class and cut. Vibrant and scented in the mouth but with a medicinal reserve today. This juicy, lively wine finishes with fine tannins and lovely lingering perfume. This finished its malo by July but fermented its sugars until August.

The best wines from this site demonstrate to me in particular in 2006 why it is the grand cru of Nuits-St.-Georges (a status long envisioned and intended; thwarted by the frugality of its early 20th century town fathers and leading vintners; and part of the platform on which the town's latest mayor was elected). Last tasted on the eve of bottling (and a very late bloomer, like the corresponding Les Cailles), the Le Moine 2006 Nuits St.-Georges Les Vaucrains brims with ripe cherry, tinged with the bitterness of its pits, along with iodine, and salt. The juxtaposition here of creaminess and melt-in-your-mouth tannins with an invigoratingly fresh, crisp-edged fruit is uncanny, not to mention delightful rather than jarring. This is another instance of lip-smacking and profundity in tandem, but while I can well imagine it offering both for 8-10 years, I detect no reason to defer the pleasure, as one probably ought to in the case of the corresponding Cailles or Les St.-Georges. ||"There was too much fruit" on the vines in 2006, opines Mounir Saouma, "and at the same time too much tannin in the fruit." Early pickers therefore, in his opinion, risked getting "lots of primary flavors, but wines that weren't serious. So we started the aging process asking ourselves how we will make this wine less tannic and more serious. After malolactic," which is always late here, "the wines changed completely. But the bigger mistake in 2006 was to bottle early" - something which also never happens at this address - "because the wines needed some time on their lees to extract sweetness and depth, and for all of their elements to come together." The results this year here are spectacular, and need not shy from comparison with their very different 2005 predecessors. Note that with a few significant exceptions there are usually only 1-2 barriques (25-50 cases) of any given Lucien Le Moine wine. Also, despite the number of them I tasted, that did not comprise by any means the entire collection (a circumstance I have taken pains to remedy with 2007). For further details on Le Moine's proprietors and methodology - which, once again this year, included a significant amount of vinification with stems - consult my report in issue 171. Wine Advocate.December, 2009