2005 Morey St Denis Les Blanchards

There are only 150 cases of Truchot’s 2005 Morey-St.-Denis Les Blanchards, which offers pungent incense and resin along with high toned almond and pistachio and pure, sweetly ripe plum and black cherry. On the palate, this displays the anticipated creaminess and refinement of tannin, along with the most overt chalkiness of any of the wines here today. (The site is so rich in clay, Truchot says, that the horses used to get stuck plowing it.) Also recommended: 2005 Bourgogne ($20.00; 86+?). After twenty-six vintages (twenty-two of them, thankfully, having been sold in the U.S., which became his largest market), and with no heirs, 68-year-old Jacky Truchot is retiring. Even the portion of Clos Sorbe behind the hulking family manor (familiar to Burgundy lovers from the old photograph on his label) is for sale with the house. Truchot’s wines could rightly be called “old-fashioned”, which made them all the more exceptional and coveted in recent years. As Robert Parker wrote of them in these pages in 1991, “as light ... as they appear, they often possess stunning fragrances and amazing richness and character.” The expression “grown, not made” has never been truer than of these wines of a farmer bonded with his vines, and they offer terrific values. Truchot expressed relief at having bowed out on a high note and especially at having missed out on 2006! I visited on an inopportune occasion, as these wines had only been bottled that week (although as usual, without pumping or filtering), and at least in part suffered from recent sulfuring. Importer: Weygandt-Metzler, Unionville, PA; tel. (610) 486-0800.