2006 Vosne Romanee Les Brulees

Incense, vanilla, star anise and lightly-cooked cherry and cassis scent Grivot's 2006 Vosne Romanee Les Brulees. Sleek and polished on the palate, it combines sweet fruit with a nut brittle-like suggestion of caramelized richness appropriate to the name of the cru in question, if unusual for the vintage. Forest floor and animal elements supply a dark undercurrent to the palate-saturating flavors on display here, backed by considerable though fine-grained tannins, which Grivot believes were accentuated by sulfur from bottling when I tasted. This should be given 2-3 years in bottle, I suspect, to show its true meddle, and ought to be worth following for at least half a dozen years thereafter. I did not, incidentally, have an opportunity to taste the tiny volume of 2006 Grivot Vosne Romanee Aux Reignots. "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