2005 - Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Les Pruliers, Lecheneaut

The Lecheneauts’ 2005 Nuits-St.-Georges Les Pruliers offers (as one would expect from this site) more overt richness, sweetness of fruit and creaminess of texture than the Damodes. Overtones of coconut and pencil shavings rather obviously announce the wine’s 75% new oak (which Lecheneauts think particularly suits this site). Notes of red cherry pie with singed crust and touches of brown spice, praline and caramel appear on the palate. This wine is imposingly lush, sensuously-satisfying and long, and those partial to distinctive notes of toasted oak will enjoy it most. The Lecheneaut brothers – Vincent and Philippe – were still hoping to get the last of two wines (a Chorey-les-Beaune and one of two lots of village Nuits-St.-Georges, the final blend of which, while promising, could therefore not be fairly assessed) to go through malo at the time of my visit. But other than that, things were looking delicious indeed in this cellar. Alcohol levels came in almost shockingly low given the ripeness of flavors on display (in fact, the brothers chaptalized a bit to extend the fermentations) and most but not all of the wines had the requisite concentration to resist any obvious marking by their 50-100% of new oak. These are forward, early-flattering, often positively flamboyant wines for the vintage. The samples I tasted had been drawn in proper proportion just prior to their having been racked and assembled for bottling (which was imminent). Importer: Robert Kacher Selections, Washington, DC; tel. (202) 832-9083.

Bright ruby-red. Inky aromas of blackberry and spicy oak. Densely packed but less sweet than the Damodes, showing a strong oakiness today and also hinting at surmaturite I find a bit of tannic dryness today, but this may be the impact of some remaining malic acidity. A sample from a second barrel was sweeter in the middle palate but drier on the back end. Solid wine but perhaps a tad coarse.