The Prieur 2005 Corton Bressandes exudes intensely ripe blackberry and cassis just like its Clos des Santenots stablemate, but offers additional suggestions of mineral as well as distinctively animal notes. Admirably bright and sweet, it truly stains the palate. Even with the influx in its finish of meat and stony mineral underpinnings, this remains a very flashy, irrepressibly sweetly-fruited style of Corton, with new wood playing a supporting but not obtrusive role. Prieur (and Rodet) oenologist Nadine Gublin vinified two lots of Clos Vougeot – one de-stemmed and one whole cluster (a method she thinks is particularly suited to the relatively clay-rich terroir of the Clos) – before blending them back again to enhance complexity. Nearly all bottlings from this negociant – on an upward path since the influx of Rodet capital in the early ‘90s – in fact originate in the Domaine Jacques Prieur. Martin Prieur and his team have striven to capture purity of fruit through gentle extraction, although for my taste I found some of their 2005s overly confectionary due to the influence of toasty new wood on already very sweetly ripe raw material. After malo – which was generally quite late here this year – the wines were sulfured but not yet racked. Importer: Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York, NY; tel. (212) 355-0700.