2006 Vosne-Romanee Les Hautes Maizieres

The malos only finished during the summer and the wines had not been racked or de-gassed by early November. Clavelier told me that because the 2007s began life with a lot of malic acidity, they're a lot more refined today than they were at the outset. Plus, he went on, they may be expanded by the aeration that occurs during racking. The pHs in 2007 are in the 3.45 to 3.5 range, which Clavelier described as "not too high." He told me that 90% of his vines are selection massale, which he believes is particularly felicitous in a time of global warming, as the diversity of the plant material results in a wider range of ripeness and thus enables the fruit to retain high acidity, on average.

Clavelier was one of several growers I visited in November who preferred 2006 to 2007. The wines have more structure, he said, and grape sugars were higher (12.5% to 13% in '06, vs. 11.8% to 12.7% in '07). The phenolic maturity was good in 2006, he went on, and definitely better than in 2004. Clavelier does not crush the grapes, and with a high percentage of old vines his smaller berries tend to release their sugars late. "I extract very gently by infusion, not by true pigeage," he said. I tasted all the 2006 samples from a combination of new and used barrels; the ultimate blends will be about one-third new oak.