2007 Vosne-Romanée Les Hautes Maizières

Pascal Lachaux is an unabashed admirer of the 2007 vintage, and clearly prefers the new crop of wines over the 2006s. In fact, he considers it his best vintage of the decade, as he views the 2005s as too concentrated. "I adore the finesse and purity of the 2007s," he told me. "The wines clearly display their terroir and they seem to be getting better week by week. In comparison, the 2006s are more broad-shouldered and a bit tough now. They've been closing down in recent months." Lachaux harvested between August 30 and September 5 in '07, chaptalizing most of his cuvees lightly and vinifying with an eye toward retaining fruit and freshness. He told me he has left grass between the vine rows for the past five years and that he's now getting more millerandage due to lower levels of nitrogen in the soil. Having smaller, better-aerated berries has meant much less rot in damp years.