2005 Echézeaux Grand Cru

Jacques Lardiere, who doesn't rush to judge each new vintage, seemed still to be pondering the quality of the 2006 reds in November, preferring instead simply to allow the wines to make themselves in Jadot's cold cellar. "There's a sharp quality to some of the Cote de Beaune wines," he told me, adding that the climate was more difficult in this area and that the wines were a bit awkward when they went into barrel. Still, the vintage has a good balance, he said, and there's a possibility that some 2006 cuvees, especially from the Cote de Nuits, might eventually be more successful than their counterparts from 2005, owing to the effects of some drought stress early in the '05 season. Incidentally, last fall Lardiere spoke of the importance of bottling 2005s with their energy intact, and it's exactly this quality that makes his top wines from this vintage among the stars of an outstanding year.

Jacques Lardiere conducted his usual vinification in 2005, which included 12 days of post-fermentation maceration. According to Lardiere, there's a lot of great wine in 2005 and a lot of good wine. The vintage as a whole is characterized by "very strong tannins," he said. "The wines need a feminine quality, and they need to have sufficient energy. And of course they need time. Some winemakers rushed their wines, manipulated them, rather than showing patience." On the subject of energy, I notice that I frequently score the finished Jadot wines at the high end of my initial projected ranges-a testament to Lardiere's uncanny ability to bring the inherent energy of the soil into the bottle.