2009 Gevrey-Chambertin Les Evocelles

Bernard Dugat farms 10 hectares of vineyards, 6.5 of which he and his family own outright. The Dugat-Py wines are breathtaking for their richness and depth. Despite their sheer concentration, the wines retain tons of vineyard and vintage character. These are some of the most viscerally thrilling, exciting wines I tasted on my recent trip through Burgundy. The only 2009 I wasn't able to taste was the Pommard, which had been bottled just prior to my visit.

Bernard Dugat, who has long been known for his deeply colored, highly concentrated and rather muscular wines, told me he has farmed organically since 2003 and that his wines as a result were gaining in roundness and silkiness. They're not exactly shrinking violets though-or ballerinas. He now does a pigeage each morning during the fermentation (previously he did two per day) and an arrosage (i.e., an "irrigation" of the cap that's gentler than classic remontage) in the evening. His high percentage of very old vines generally produces low crop levels and concentrated wines. Dugat started harvesting on September 10; he told me that potential alcohol levels were generally 12.6% or 12.7%, with no wines above 13%, and that he chaptalized a few cuvees lightly. The tannins, he pointed out, are more enrobed than those of 2005. But they're still quite powerful, even if his wines have the inner core of energy to support extended aging. The malos were very late here, generally finishing in July or August, and the barrels I tasted had been racked in September.