2006 Domaine Robert Chevillon Nuits-Saint-Georges Les Saint-Georges 1er Cru

Ethereal, distilled kirsch and framboise notes in the nose of Chevillon 2006 Nuits-St.-Georges Les St.-Georges usher in a liqueur-like palate display, mingling sweet dark berries with marzipan, chocolate, toasted hazelnut, peat, and crushed stone. This displays a more roasted richness than other Chevillon 2006s, along with a sheer sweetness of fruit that seem to typify this site in the vintage, rendering it far more youthfully accessible than normal. That said, it by no means lacks for mineral or for roasted, meaty dimensions, and I imagine it will be worth following for at least a dozen years. The underlying tannic structure is present, simply swathed in what I anticipate to be a more than ample and renewable concentration of fruit. This beauty merits following for a dozen or more years. Given the superb track record of this estate's wines even in perceived weak and/or youthfully generous vintages - I think, for example, of the youthfully delicious 1992s I purchased at deeply-discounted prices and only recently finished enjoying - it would be foolish to admonish Burgundy lovers to drink their 2006s up early. Nevertheless, like so many of the best wines of this vintage, they are for the most part already on call - or very soon will be - to deliver generously. Bertrand Chevillon reports that little sorting was required above the level of village wines (the team here began picking Pinot September 22), and that while alcoholic fermentation was unusually protracted, the course of elevage from the standpoint of human interaction was unexceptional, save for backing off a pit on pigeage. Importer: Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA; tel. (510) 524-1524