2006 Vosne-Romanée Vieilles Vignes

Laurent bought little in the way of grand cru in 2007, and declassified a lot of his juice-mostly from grapes that he thought were not ripe enough-into cuvee tradition bottlings, which I do not taste on my annual visit here, but which often find their way to the U.S. through the grey market. (Note that the wines described below will all say vieilles vignes on their labels, according to Laurent). "Two thousand six is my year," he told me. "Two thousand seven is much more irregular, but some wines are better than in 2006. Some are less ripe, while others are ripe but have low acidity. Two thousand seven is a millesime des jardiniers, but bad gardeners got a lot of rot. Incidentally, Laurent is aging a number of his 2007s in what he calls "half-year-old barrels," by which he means new barrels that first held his grand crus for six months. In some instances, wines in half-year-old oak were then racked into a second set of new barrels.

On more than one occasion during my marathon 2006 tasting, Dominique Laurent reminded me that last year he made no special claims for 2005; he even indicated a slight preference for his 2003s. The subtext, I believe, was, on the one hand, that since his suppliers normally do the vinifying (he brings purchased barrels of wine to his cellar in the winter), his own creative options are limited, and, on the other, that even an idiot could have made good wine in 2005. And so there wasn't much he could add about 2005. But he was high on his 2006s. "They're delicious wines, purer than the 2004s," he summarized midway through our tasting. "A great vintage is very classic from the start; 2006 is like that, even if it's not entirely regular. For starters, due to normal harvesting dates, growers on the Cote de Beaune generally picked less ripe fruit than those on the Cote de Nuits, as they did again in 2007." Laurent bought less village wine in 2006 than in 2005, and "much less" generic wine.