2005 Domaine Michel Lafarge Beaune Les Greves 1er Cru

Bright crimson with rather a hidden nose. Very sinewy indeed – should mellow eventually. Lots of bright fruit though for the moment pretty backward. Substance here but race too. For the moment rather difficult to read. (JR)

The vines of Lafarge’s 2005 Beaune Greves have passed seventy years of age, and on this occasion they seem uninterested in trying to charm or cajole the taster. The pure black fruit essences on display in this formidably dense Pinot smell and taste as though they were macerated on chalk pebbles and fruit pits. High-toned notes of herbal distillates in the nose transform themselves on the palate into a bitter-sweet medicinal character. Abundant, fine-grained tannin suggests the need to hold this for 5-7 years before even attempting to revisit it. Right now, there seems to be a virtual avalanche of stones blocking the path to fruit in the finish. Still, given the concentration and ripeness of raw material and the track record of this site in the Lafarge hands, I would hesitate to bet against it in 2005 of all vintages. The entire Lafarge collection was predictably still in barrel when I visited in February, with even the generic cuvees due for assembly only in March. Speaking of generic bottlings, I don’t know of another domaine that has three of them, and I certainly doubt that there is one with three routinely worthy of attention even by those with the disposable income to afford premier crus. A Becky Wassserman Selection (various importers), Le Serbet, Beaune; fax 011-33-3-80-24-29-70

Deep red-ruby. Dark cherry and menthol on the somewhat austere nose. Tight but fine, with good inner-mouth aromatic quality. Tangy and nicely concentrated wine with more incipient complexity than the Aigrots. This spreads out nicely on the back end, showing more buffering material to support its dusty tannins. The vines here are in excess of 75 years of age.