2009 Charmes Chambertin Vieilles Vignes

The 2009 Charmes-Chambertin Vieilles Vignes is starting to close down. An initial blast of blue and black fruit leads to sweet, perfumed flowers as the wine slowly unfurls in the glass. Still, it is clear that the 2009 is in no mood to reveal all of its cards. Glimpses of its beauty appear from time to time, but the 2009 is a wine whose best days lie somewhere in the future. For now, this tasting is enough to confirm that the wine is indeed quite special. Anticipated maturity: 2021-2039. Denis Bachelet’s 2009s showed better from bottle than they did from barrel. This is a gorgeous set of wines. A Becky Wasserman Selection, Le Serbet, various American importers, including: Martin Scott Wines, Little Neck, NY; tel. (516) 327-0808; AOC Imports, CA; tel. (415) 279-8708; Toepfer Imports LLC, CO; tel. (303) 818-7640

(bottled in May of 2011): Ruby-red. Wild, complex aromas of huckleberry, game, coffee, licorice, lavender and smoky oak. Wonderfully sweet and seamless, spreading out to saturate the entire palate with saline black fruit and mineral flavors. Boasts outstanding depth and a superb mounting finish featuring fine-grained tannins. Extremely young today and likely to evolve slowly. Hail here held down both yield and alcohol level.

Bright medium red. Knockout soil-driven aromas of blackberry, violet, smoky minerality, meat and mint. Large-scaled and creamy but with solid spine and a restrained sweetness to its explosive dark fruit and violet flavors. Seamless but not quite unctuous-and not a bit heavy. Best today on the powerful, rising, palate-staining finish, where the serious tannins are covered by the wine's flesh. Looks to be an outstanding vintage for this cuvee