From very young vines (7 years old), the medium ruby-colored Chambolle-Musigny Les Veroilles reveals an attractive floral nose with scents of roses, violets, and strawberries and a silky-textured, sweet and elegant personality. Short in the finish and lacking complexity (probably due to the age of the vines), this wine should be consumed between its release and 2003. This note is the result of tastings I did in Burgundy between January 7 and January 29. The wine was tasted from cask, not bottle. Pinot Noir, a fragile varietal, reacts poorly to fining, filtration, and careless bottling techniques, I recommend caution when considering buying a red burgundy based on cask samples. I called it as I tasted it, and hope the bottled wine reflects the quality of the samples I was provided. The Marsannay appellation, the northernmost of the Cote d'Or, in reality a suburb of Dijon, is only known to the Burgundy cognoscenti, but on these hillsides Clair makes some of Burgundy's finest values. In '95, a hail storm on July 23 damaged Clair's grapes in Marsannay, popping some berries open and threatening the onset of rot. However, subsequent rain storms washed the broken berries from the vines leaving only the healthy ones. His yields were significantly reduced because of this occurrence (a mere 22 hectoliters/hectare), but Clair's wines are clean. Importer: Vineyard Brands, Chester, VT; tel. (802) 875-2139.