From the Les Orveaux section of its appellation high up above the Chateau du Clos Vougeot, Bizot’s 2005 Echezeaux smells of concentrated, tiny cherries and purple plums, bitter-sweet flowers, and wood smoke. Intensely-fruited, pungently smoky and quite gripping on the palate, its inner-mouth suggestions of pit fruit distillates and flowers are especially alluring. Meaty (raw) and mineral (chalk) dimensions are not neglected here either. The long, savory, sweetly-fruited finish is marked by abundant spice, but also by fine tannin and a hint of wood that at least for now ever so slightly cut against the purity and relative delicacy of the fruit. Still, this is a sexy wine: clear and refined, complex and intense without any heaviness. Having no experience with the maturation of Bizot’s Echezeaux, I can nevertheless reasonably envision pulling a cork again after 5-7 years to determine how the tannins are evolving.Importer: Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA; tel. (510) 524 1524