2006 Clos Vougeot Vieille Vignes

I tasted with vineyard manager Cyril Beutot, as Francois Labet was home with the flu. After partly destemming the fruit in 2006, Labet vinified entirely whole clusters in 2007, doing a total of a month of cuvaison, including a seven-day pre-fermentation cold soak. The 2007s have a healthy 13.5% alcohol without chaptalization, noted Beutot, who described them as softer than the 2006s but still with plenty of tannins for a long life in bottle. Crop levels after the sorting were in the very low 20 hectoliters-per-hectare range, according to Beutot.

Francois Labet describes 2006 as a vintage with "classic structure, backbone, flesh and aromas: the wines will need aging to knit." In comparison, he went on, 2005 is exuberant and not classical. "It's okay with some ladies but not with older ladies. It's St. Laurent or Guerlain; it's not Dior or Givenchy." Sexist comments aside, I like them both, although there's nothing "feminine" about the sheer size of the 2005s. Labet noted that 2006 was a more difficult vintage "in every aspect." After sorting, he produced less than 30 hectoliters per hectare in Clos Vougeot; some hail at the border with Grands-Echezeaux made it necessary to eliminate 12% or 13% of the fruit. As is his habit, Labet vinified with whole clusters. No chaptalization was done in 2006, and the wines had not yet been racked at the time of my visit.