Redolent of game and sweet floral perfume, the Bouchard 2006 Echezeaux comes to the palate with generous, red fruits mingling with underbrush, flowers, and game. This preserves a lip-smacking sense of primary juiciness, and vintage-typical buoyancy that is less common within the Cote de Nuits half of this particular collection. I would anticipate it's being worth following for a half dozen years, perhaps longer. Director Philippe Prost emphasized the importance of flexible and surgical picking (with a crew numbering upwards of 300) and getting his crop to Bouchard's battery of presses within two hours via a fleet of mini-vans. He insists that relatively little triage was necessary on the domaine vineyards (as opposed to those under contract) and the estate wines are certainly predictably stronger as a group. (I have generally mentioned in the notes that follow which wines are from Bouchard's domaine and which from contract fruit, but have explicitly noted this as part of a wine's description, only if there are two versions of the same appellation within the present portfolio.) The fruit was crushed very gently and the wines racked only once – at 10-14 months, than usual – explains Prost, in order to guard against exposed or drying tannins, a policy which my tastings suggest was generally successful. Importer: Henriot, Inc, New York, NY; tel. (212) 605-6767

Smoky, rich, this wine packs a powerful punch of vibrant black cherry fruits, and generous sweet tannins. It is big, muscular, the structure wide and open. It shows richness and opulence, brought into line by a firm, youthful structure that needs five years or more to age. ——R.V.(12/31/2008)—— 95