2006 Beaune Marconnets

The 2006 Beaune Marconnets represents Choppin de Janvry's last-picked Beaune, from a site planted with a tiny-berried clone characteristically conducive to concentration, and he accordingly permitted this several days of post-fermentative extraction that his other 2006s did not receive. The upshot is a wine of rather furry tannins, combining lightly cooked sweet cherry, allied to suggestions of game, fungus, and forest floor. This boasts breadth and structure, provided the fruit stays up to role implicitly assigned it. Choppin de Janvry suggests it isn't showing its full potential vis-a-vis its siblings, and I am inclined to suspect it might show better on any given day. After waiting to harvest until only the last four or five days of September, Geoffrey Choppin de Janvry reports having done a rigorous sorting and ultimately assembling his 2006s earlier than usual – in February, with bottling a month later – in order to preserve fruit. Imported by Robert Kacher Selections, Washington, DC; tel. (202) 832 9083