2005 Nuits Saint-Georges Les Cailles 1er Cru

Bertrand Chevillon compared the estate's young 2006s to its 2002s and 2001s, which suggests that the new crop of wines will be classic and slow to evolve in bottle. The fermentations were longer than usual (up to four weeks), and the racking regime was a bit complicated by irregular malolactic fermentations, which ended between February and June. Chevillon told me that the estate does not do a green harvest in its oldest parcels, but does pull leaves on the north side of the vines, usually at the end of June. Grape sugars in 2006 were generally around 12.2%, and some chaptalization was done. Incidentally, the Chevillons just bought some more vines in Nuits-Saint-Georges Les Cailles and now own all of the Cailles land that they work. Previously they had a fermage arrangement on this parcel. Bertrand also noted that the family doesn't own vines in Les Saint-Georges, and owns only a part of the Vaucrains from which it makes a consistently superb wine. The rest of their fruit in these two splendid premier crus comes through fermage agreements.

"There's not a lot to say; it's all in the glass," said Bertrand Chevillon about the young 2005s. Or, to be precise, in the barrel. Like many of their fellow vignerons the Chevillons have been picking riper fruit and doing less and less extraction in recent years. Potential alcohols in 2005 ranged from 12.5% to as high as 13.3% for the Vaucrains. (Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA; Ideal Wine & Spirits, Medford, MA) Also recommended: Nuits-Saint-Georges (86).