2005 - Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru, Robert Arnoux

Good full red-ruby. Aromas of cassis, black cherry, licorice and spice. Dense, concentrated black fruit flavors are currently a bit clenched and forbidding. In a distinctly masculine, somewhat chunky style, finishing with solid tannins. Less sharply delineated than the premier crus from Vosne-Romanee but plenty fresh. Evolving slowly.

The Arnoux 2005 Clos de Vougeot offers cedary, resinous, cassis, and blackberry aromas. Beef marrow and sweet black fruits mingle on a relatively firm, broad palate wherein a hint of wood shavings can be detected. The finish stirs interest in and hope for this wine as it is energetic and quite freshly fruited, if (at least as yet) rather coarsely tannic. Certainly one could expect this to need considerable bottle age to reveal its full potential. Also recommended: 2005 Bourgogne (85). Pascal Lachaux (the late Robert Arnoux’s son-in-law, who has been in charge here now for nearly two decades) had just bottled his 2005 collection – vinified in his superb, recently-completed, gravity-fed facilities – when I visited. Lachaux compares the proper watchword of the winemaker in a vintage with Pinot as healthy and naturally-concentrated as in 2005, to that of a chef confronted with a perfect piece of fish: restraint. That also describes the results he has achieved in bottle, although allowance should be made for the possibility that the expression of certain wines was restrained by their recent bottling. mporter: Rosenthal Wine Merchant, Pine Plains, NY; tel. (800) 910-1990.