2006 Nuits St Georges Les Roncieres

The Chevillon 2006 Nuits-St.-Georges Les Roncieres displays greater depth and sappier, mouth-filling cling of ripe, almost liqueur-like black fruits - accompanied by notes of tar, peat, and resin - than the corresponding Chaignots. It also displays more obvious tannins and suggests the advisability of holding it for at least a couple of years, then enjoying over the ensuing half dozen. Given the superb track record of this estate's wines even in perceived weak and/or youthfully generous vintages - I think, for example, of the youthfully delicious 1992s I purchased at deeply-discounted prices and only recently finished enjoying - it would be foolish to admonish Burgundy lovers to drink their 2006s up early. Nevertheless, like so many of the best wines of this vintage, they are for the most part already on call - or very soon will be - to deliver generously. Bertrand Chevillon reports that little sorting was required above the level of village wines (the team here began picking Pinot September 22), and that while alcoholic fermentation was unusually protracted, the course of elevage from the standpoint of human interaction was unexceptional, save for backing off a pit on pigeage. Importer: Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA; tel. (510) 524-1524