2006 Nuits St Georges Les Corvees Pagets

From the edge of Prissy, the Arnoux 2006 Nuits-St.-Georges Clos Des Corvees Pagets exhibits the next level of concentration – indeed, nearly implosive – from the estate's other Nuits-St.-Georges bottlings. Although it is tighter in tannic structure, more closed-in, and more brooding, this possesses the depth and density of many-boned meat stock-like reduction, saline savor, crushed stone and chalk, and bittersweet black fruits, so that you feel as if straining it through your teeth. The flavors resonate with energy long after you've spit or swallowed. And for all of the intimations of structure here, outright roughness is not one of them. I would plan to start drinking this around 2012 and anticipate up to a decade's fascination from that point. Pascal Lachaux – who subscribes to the prevalent notion that this vintage reflects elements of 2000 and 2002 – is one of the very few red Burgundy growers (Rouget another) whose 2006s strike me as outclassing their 2005s. It's possible that his having had a prior vintage to become accustomed to the opportunities afforded by his spacious new, gravity flow cellar contributed to his success this year. And it's of course also possible that I have under- or over-rated one of these vintages. Lachaux – who defends 2005 as one of his best-ever collections – concurs in finding each 2006 typical for its site as well as more expressive than his 2005s have thus far been, and in the observation that these 2006s improve as they open to the air, suggesting to me considerable longer-term cellaring potential than one can expect from most wines of the vintage. Importer: Rosenthal Wine Merchant, Pine Plains, NY; tel. (800) 910-1990