2006 Bouchard Pere & Fils Bonne-Mares Burgundy - 750ml

“This is perhaps the most reserved wine in the range aromatically and it required aggressive swirling to coax even grudging aromas of red and blue pinot fruit with violet hints that precede ripe, pure and very serious broad-shouldered flavors that possess a beguiling texture and impressive mid-palate concentration that still does not completely buffer the firm, long and chewy finish. This is a big wine that will require plenty of cellar patience. BH Philippe Prost, Bouchard's winemaker, repeated that the "new coterie is a godsend in terms of being able to analyze quickly and efficiently what we are bringing in as well as to separate out specific parcels within vineyards and then include them or not later as each cuvee merits. We now can also move grapes, must and wine around with zero pumping, which is especially important with grapes as now we don't break the seeds, which in some vintages is critical because they're not always ripe and as such, they can be the source of bitterness. This was especially important in 2006 and 2007 whereas 2005 wasn't really as much of a test because the raw materials turned out to be much more robust and tolerant. In terms of the growing season, you really had to wait for phenolic maturity in the reds whereas it was important to harvest the whites early. In fact, it's interesting to note that for the first time since 1989, we started harvesting the whites before the reds! We began picking on September 18th for the chardonnay as it was easy to have surmaturite. The fruit was harvested under cool conditions and we had good if not truly exceptional cleanliness and relatively high sugars in chardonnay that mostly ranged between 13.5 and 14%. In retrospect, I am very happy that we got the whites in early because rot was a potential looming problem and the acidities were falling rapidly so by starting when we did we were able to avoid both problems. Yields were all over the place with some vineyards being relatively normal but others were low. As to the wines themselves, while there is no perfect parallel, I might compare the 2006 whites to the 2000s as they're similar in style." Prost went on to note that the '06s were bottled earlier than normal because they were taking up their wood quickly and in both colors and thus the decision was made that there was no point in risking the wines drying out in barrel. The quality of the Bouchard '06 whites is certainly very good to excellent and while the reds can't match the '05s, the '06 whites are every bit as good as their '05 counterparts though I hasten to point out that they possess very different personalities.”