3 | Wine | Cote de Nuits, 2005

"Black cherry, kirsch distillate, cedar, incense, iron filings, wet stone, and roasted meats and coffee represent a few of the immediate aromatic suggestions forced on this taster. In the mouth, it is similarly compelling, with an eruption of clear black cherry, cassis, and meat juices, faintly bitter notes of fruit skin and pungent herbal and mineral notes adding complexity. The texture is incipiently velvety, imposingly glossy, and a perfect cover for fine, abundant tannins. Spectacularly rich and reverberative in its multifaceted finish, this sensational wine deserves at least a decade of rest before re-opening."

"From just below the Boudot and near (Vosne) Chaumes, Leroy’s 2005 Nuits-St.-Georges Bas de Combe offers aromas of salted black cherry, rose hips and wood smoke. Uncannily meaty in the mouth with persistent sweet fruit and doughy, velvety richness, this displays a lovely sweet juiciness of pure, clear fruit and flattering floral perfume and creaminess of texture in its finish. I hardly notice the structure for the sweetness of fruit and all the pillows strewn ‘round."

"The 2005 Nuits-St.-Georges Les Lavieres smells of sandalwood, cocoa powder, and lightly-cooked black cherry. Strikingly creamy, polished and plush on the palate, with vividly concentrated cherry fruit and meat juices, it finishes sweet and rich but with strong underlying tannins and stony, alkaline mineral notes."

"There is more overt chewiness of tannin to go with the impressive density of Leroy’s 2005 Nuits-St.-Georges Aux Allots, which leads with red currant and rhubarb, comes to the palate with soy-like savor and chalky minerality, and finishes long on bright fruit and invigorating savor, but also relatively implacable tannin."

"The Latour flagship 2005 Corton Chateau Corton Grancey offers both aromatically and on the palate a wealth of mineral characteristics: chalk, brine, wet stone and a distinctly alkaline overall cast. Expansive, black cherry fruit (as well as cherry pits) and underlying meatiness emerge more prominently in the finish." 87-89 pts.