From five tiny parcels with largely old vines scattered about the village, a Lecheneaut 2005 Chambolle-Musigny, intriguingly, offers a deeper color than their village Gevrey (which in turn was darker than the Morey). This wine, too, offers surprising amplitude and richness of fruit for the village level, but with both more creaminess of texture and a brighter edge of fresh black raspberry and cassis fruit, leading to a finish of considerable cut and refreshment. Exotic spices and hints of chocolate, orange zest, and aromatic woods stretch from the nose to the tail. Combined with deep, rich fresh-meatiness and sheer chalky substrate, they add up to a village performance of impressive complexity and polish that might well improve but will drink well relatively early. 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.

From five tiny parcels with largely old vines scattered about the village, a Lecheneaut 2005 Chambolle-Musigny, intriguingly, offers a deeper color than their village Gevrey (which in turn was darker than the Morey). This wine, too, offers surprising amplitude and richness of fruit for the village level, but with both more creaminess of texture and a brighter edge of fresh black raspberry and cassis fruit, leading to a finish of considerable cut and refreshment. Exotic spices and hints of chocolate, orange zest, and aromatic woods stretch from the nose to the tail. Combined with deep, rich fresh-meatiness and sheer chalky substrate, they add up to a village performance of impressive complexity and polish that might well improve but will drink well relatively early. 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.