2005 Nuits Saint-Georges Village

I was stunned by the quality of Pascal Lachaux's 2005s. As Lachaux said, "I like 2002 and 2004 a lot, but 2005 is my best year so far." (Lachaux began working here in 1985 and vinified on his own for the first time in 1990; his father-in-law Robert Arnoux died in 1995.) Lachaux told me he was the first to start picking in Vosne-Romanee, along with Jean-Nicolas Meo and DRC; he brought in his fruit with sugars between 13% and 13.3%. Lachaux vinified in his new cuverie in 2005, where he doesn't have to pump the berries after the destemming. He believes this gives the wines less bitterness and tannic hardness while preserving the fruit. Perhaps more important, Lachaux has invested in heat and humidification equipment that, among other things, enables him to keep the temperature of his cellar from descending below 55o in the winter. Excessive cold also risks hardening the tannins, Lachaux maintains. There is little doubt that the new facility helped turn 2005 into something special for this domain.