2005 Clos Vougeot "Musigni"

Bernard Gros made it clear to me in November that he prefers wines with sucrosite, and that he finds strongly mineral wines to be too sharp. "I like vintages with lower acidity, like '03," he told me. "And I don't like 1996." Gros compared 2006 to 2000 in its "easiness," even if he believes that the younger vintage has a bit more material. As always, Gros made use of his evaporator to concentrate his 2006s (he told me that the yield was copious following the short crop of the previous year), and the grand crus are currently carrying alcohol in the 14% range. Gros heats the must to between 40oC and 45oC for 48 hours at the end of the fermentation "to get more color and to stabilize the wines." He ages his wines in 100% new barriques but notes that they spend just one year in wood, without racking; he does some lees stirring until the end of the malolactic fermentations. The wines had been assembled in stainless steel tanks a couple of weeks before my visit. (A Patrick Lesec Selection; importers include Classic Wine Imports, Boston, MA; Fine Vines LLC, Melrose Park, IL; Noble House, New York, NY) Also recommended: Bourgogne Hautes Cotes de Nuits (86).

Due largely to the hailstorm in May, which hit the north side of Vosne-Romanee especially hard, Bernard Gros had just half a normal crop in 2005 ("it was like 2003 in quantity") and for some cuvees he made no use of his evaporator to further concentrate the wines. This estate's wines are getting interesting again, as the mostly young vines gain in maturity: Gros replanted literally 90% of his 21 hectares with selected clones between 1985 and 1995. Incidentally, he told me the clones offered a significant advantage in 2006 because they normally ripen their fruit a week earlier. And Gros emphasized that his concentrator, which he adopted in 1996, is not an "osmoser" (i.e., a reverse osmosis device) but rather an "amplifier." Gros prefers to use this method because he believes that chaptalizing involves adding a foreign object to his wine. Gros had moved his 2005s to stainless steel tank a couple weeks before my visit and planned to bottle them in January. These tanks are on the roof level of his facility, and he lets the temperature of the wines descend to just a few degrees above freezing by opening the windows. (A Patrick Lesec Selection; importers include Classic Wine Imports, Boston, MA; Fine Vines LLC, Melrose Park, IL; WH Imports, Manassas , VA)