2005 Gevrey Chambertin Lavaux St Jacques

Rather low key and sweet and rich and glamorous. So exciting. Tense and rich too. Gorgeous! (JR)

The 2005 Gevrey-Chambertin Lavaux St.-Jacques evinces a roasted meatiness and superb, low-toned depth of subtly sweet fruit, salty, savory yet implacable minerality, toasted nut piquancy, and an overall personality that combines palate-staining intensity with cool refinement and elegance, density with silky texture, and monumental minerality with verve. Plan to revel in this at anywhere from ten to twenty years age. Taking over this domaine in his mid-twenties, Arnaud Mortet appears poised to bottle a superb collection from his father’s final harvest. The crew took a brief second pass over certain parcels, he relates, and the bunches from some young vines required triage, but otherwise the fruit was perfect at first picking. Malolactic fermentations continued well into last autumn. Mortet emphasizes that he will continue a search for elegance and refinement begun in recent years, with a lighter touch during fermentation, and at least for vintage 2006 the employment of some previously-used barrels in order to de-emphasize wood at the modest end of his price spectrum. Importer: Martine’s Wines, Novato, CA; tel. (415) 883-0400.

Good deep, bright red-ruby. Raspberry and smoked meat on the expressive nose. Creamy-sweet in the mouth, with a flavor dominated by ripe berries. Silky, fine-grained and elegant, with an impression of lowish acidity. Finishes with substantial broad tannins that will require a good five or six years of cellaring. This will merit a score at the high end of my range if it goes into bottle with enough vibrancy.