2006 Vosne-Romanée Village

Rouget compares 2007 to 1997, describing the young wines as "typical pinot: attractive, fresh and persistent." He made only 33 hectoliters per hectare after tossing out rotten and pink grapes. Fermentation temperatures reached just 26oC, and Rouget noted that pHs are in the moderate 3.45 to 3.6 range. The typical wine was 11.8% potential alcohol chaptalized to about 12.8%. Rouget, always a candid judge of vintages and his own wines, believes the 2006s are cleaner wines that show their terroirs more clearly. They're a bit denser, he continued, even if they're showing their tannins today. And they're "truer, fresher expressions of pinot than the '05s," he added, describing the earlier year as "a vintage for snobs, with too much speculation."

Rouget had a crop level averaging 38 hectoliters per hectare in 2006, following the elimination of some rotten and green grapes. He made it clear that 2006 is his style of wine. "I adore 2006 for its finesse, elegance and higher-than-average acidity," he told me. "The wines are aromatic and very well balanced, and they should age very well." Rouget, who would rather "protect the natural acidity in the grapes than get more alcohol," chaptalized most of his '06s about a half-degree, to around 13%. His very rich 2005s are riper and lower in acidity than his 2006s-less fruity today and more tannic.