2005 Gevrey Chambertin Cazetiers

From nearly ninety year-old vines and in bottle three weeks when I tasted, a 2005 Gevrey-Chambertin Les Cazetiers offers an alluring bouquet of flowers, backed by blackberries and tiny Maine blueberries. This manages in the mouth to combine overt chalk and stone minerality as befits its rocky, high-elevation origins, plus deep marrow and beef stock meatiness, with a refinement, purity and sweetness of fruit that are hallmark Lucien Le Moine. Bitter-sweet florality refined minerality and pure fruit inform a finish of superb penetration and length. This certainly makes a strong case for the quality of its site, if not quite for Saouma’s opinion that Cazetiers is the finest premier cru of Gevrey. I especially regret having learned only later that I was not being offered a taste of the corresponding Lavaux St.-Jacques. Importer: Vintus, Pleasantville, NY; tel. (919) 769-3000