2006 Vosne Romanee Les Chaumes

Gros's 2006 Vosne Romanee Chaumes offers slightly discordant scents of framboise liqueur; alkaline, briny sea breeze; and caramel that borders on burnt sugar. All three elements persist prominently on the palate, with the mineral salinity in principle offering a nice foil to the wine's sappy sweetness of fruit, but the caramel remaining detached into the finish. I have unfortunately not visited with Bernard Gros in quite some years, and my most recent tastings – from samples – have been ill-fated. His set of 2005s that reached me soon after bottling had been too recently and/or too heavily sulfured to properly assess; and a set of 2006s that reached me only recently included a corked Richebourg, of which I therefore offer no further account. The Gros Frere house style of prominent fruit sweetness and caramelized new wood was very much – for my taste, a bit too much – present throughout these 2006s, resulting in a decidedly sweet-sour tension. A Patrick Lesec Selection (various importers), Paris Fax 011 33 4 66 37 67 23; also imported by Atherton Wine Imports, Menlo Park, CA, tel. (650) 328-6639