2005 Nuits St Georges Les Poisets

From a 70-year-old parcel Lachaux says is prone to millerandage and concentration, even when (as in this year) overall yields are good-sized, the 2005 Nuits-St.-Georges Les Poisets displays considerably deeper color than the previous wines in this collection. Salted meat, ripe plum, and blackberry aromas prepare the way for a palate featuring well-concentrated black fruit, carnal and bitter-herbal flavors, distinct though not coarse tannins, and greater substance than the preceding wines as well. The finish seems a bit restrained, almost certainly due to the recent bottling. Also recommended: 2005 Bourgogne (85). Pascal Lachaux (the late Robert Arnoux’s son-in-law, who has been in charge here now for nearly two decades) had just bottled his 2005 collection – vinified in his superb, recently-completed, gravity-fed facilities – when I visited. Lachaux compares the proper watchword of the winemaker in a vintage with Pinot as healthy and naturally-concentrated as in 2005, to that of a chef confronted with a perfect piece of fish: restraint. That also describes the results he has achieved in bottle, although allowance should be made for the possibility that the expression of certain wines was restrained by their recent bottling. mporter: Rosenthal Wine Merchant, Pine Plains, NY; tel. (800) 910-1990.