2005 Vosne-Romanée La Colombière

Fans of this domain will be happy to learn that Louis-Michel Liger-Belair has seven new wines as of 2006, as he is now renting an estate from a former sharecropper. He now offers quite a range of Vosne-Romanee premier crus. Liger-Belair told me that he harvested in '06 with higher sugars than in 2005 and with similar levels of acidity. Since 2003, he has done very little pigeage (just two or three punchdowns in all), and normally one or two pumpovers per day. The 2005s here, bottled last January, have turned out very well. (A Becky Wasserman selection; importers include Pas Mal, Inc., New York, NY; Wines Unlimited, New Orleans, LA; and Vinalia Imports, Camarillo, CA)

"The archetype of the great vintage, even if it's too early to say it's great," said Louis-Michel Liger-Belair of 2005. "We had all the key elements, and at the right time: rain, sun, extended ripening. The wines have tasted great since the start." Liger-Belair told me that 2005 was a vintage of true fruit maturity, while in 2002 the concentration came more from sun and wind in September. Yields in 2005 ranged from 32 to 40 hectoliters per hectare. Nothing had been racked at the time of my visit but Liger-Belair noted that a racking was imminent. I was bowled over by the aromatic complexity and Oriental spice character of the estate's young '05s. (A Becky Wasserman selection; importers include Pas Mal, Inc., New York, NY; Wines Unlimited, New Orleans, LA; and Vinalia Imports, Camarillo, CA)