The 2009 Chassagne-Montrachet La Romanee comes across as quite rich, fat and explosive. It shows gorgeous inner perfume, layers of seamless fruit and a long, textured finish. This is about as elegant as Chassagne gets. It is a dazzling wine, but a bottle that will appeal most to readers who enjoy large-scaled whites. Anticipated maturity: 2012+. Jacques Lardiere and Frederic Barnier showed me a wide range of 2009s during my visit in late June, 2011. Many of the jewels among the 2009s are hidden in the villages level wines, which I highly encourage readers to check out. I also tasted a selection of 2008s. The 2008s are quite fat for the year. Yields were lower than in 2009. Lardiere made the decision to age the wines longer on their lees to give them more richness, which he felt was lacking because of the inconsistent, high acid vintage. As a result, these are fairly big 2008s. Importer: Kobrand Corp., Purchase, NY; tel. (914) 253-7756

The 2009 Chassagne-Montrachet La Romanee comes across as quite rich, fat and explosive. It shows gorgeous inner perfume, layers of seamless fruit and a long, textured finish. This is about as elegant as Chassagne gets. It is a dazzling wine, but a bottle that will appeal most to readers who enjoy large-scaled whites. Anticipated maturity: 2012+. Jacques Lardiere and Frederic Barnier showed me a wide range of 2009s during my visit in late June, 2011. Many of the jewels among the 2009s are hidden in the villages level wines, which I highly encourage readers to check out. I also tasted a selection of 2008s. The 2008s are quite fat for the year. Yields were lower than in 2009. Lardiere made the decision to age the wines longer on their lees to give them more richness, which he felt was lacking because of the inconsistent, high acid vintage. As a result, these are fairly big 2008s.Importer: Kobrand Corp., Purchase, NY; tel. (914) 253-7756