Representing a blend of two barrels from two different growers, the Le Moine 2006 Chambolle-Musigny Les Amoureuses smells of smoked meat, smoky black tea, ginger, and fresh, ripe plum and cherry. Bright, sappy fruit intensity, pungent spice and smokiness, and invigorating salinity saturate the palate, accompanied through an impressively long, dynamic, and refreshing finish by chalkiness and bitter suggestions of fruit pit and herbs. What this lacks as yet vis-a-vis its siblings from Hauts Doix and Charmes is their seamlessness, and there is a more obvious sense of tannic presence here, which Saouma explains with reference to "that shoulder" of the Cote that is Amoureuses, "which suffered more from drought in 2006 than other vineyards." Possibly, too - although the wine was already bottled when I tasted - this could represent an instance of what Saouma referred to with Charmes as the need for the two components to marry over a mere matter of months. I would anticipate a decade or more of beauty here. "There was too much fruit" on the vines in 2006, opines Mounir Saouma, "and at the same time too much tannin in the fruit." Early pickers therefore, in his opinion, risked getting "lots of primary flavors, but wines that weren't serious. So we started the aging process asking ourselves how we will make this wine less tannic and more serious. After malolactic," which is always late here, "the wines changed completely. But the bigger mistake in 2006 was to bottle early" - something which also never happens at this address - "because the wines needed some time on their lees to extract sweetness and depth, and for all of their elements to come together." The results this year here are spectacular, and need not shy from comparison with their very different 2005 predecessors. Note that with a few significant exceptions there are usually only 1-2 barriques (25-50 cases) of any given Lucien Le Moine wine. Also, despite the number of them I tasted, that did not comprise by any means the entire collection (a circumstance I have taken pains to remedy with 2007). For further details on Le Moine's proprietors and methodology - which, once again this year, included a significant amount of vinification with stems - consult my report in issue 171.Importer: Vintus, Pleasantville, NY; tel. (919) 769-3000
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