1996 Domaine Joseph Roty Griotte-Chambertin Grand Cru

This wine has a bright black color and a profound nose of sweet cherries laced with toasty oak. This elegant, velvety-textured, medium-to-full-bodied, and concentrated wine reveals smoked bacon, black cherries, cassis, minerals, and grilled oak. While seemingly not as dense and intense as the Mazis, this offering appears to be holding a great deal in reserve. Roty told me that the Griotte-Chambertin vineyard was formed by a meteorite that crashed to earth thousands of years ago. He claims this explains the large deposits of iron that render it so distinct from the Chapelle-Chambertin, Charmes-Chambertin, and Chambertin Clos de Beze vineyards that border it. This wine should be consumed between 2005 and 2010. Importer: Alain Junguenet, Wines of France, Mountainside, NJ, tel (908) 654-6173.