Since the site in question was at the epicenter of one of the vintage hailstorms, Brun and Clair said they held pack on fermentative extraction of their 2006 Gevrey-Chambertin La Petit Chapelle. The result is a lighter color and more delicate personality than possessed by most of the wines in this collection, but there are abundant tart, bittersweet cherry fruit; a chalky underlying sense of minerality; refined tannins; and a lovely sense of equilibrium and saline, saliva-inducing finish. I suspect this will benefit from a couple of years in the bottle, but would plan to enjoy it within a half dozen.
Bruno Clair and cellar master Philippe Brun have a battery of 1,500 liter upright fermentation casks as well as larger ovals, which permit more wines to depart small barrels sooner but not have to go into tanks. And in 2006 (or for that matter 2007), they concurred that preservation of fruit and preventing the wood from drying it out were paramount considerations. (In fact, the Marsannay cuvees were still not yet bottled when I last tasted them in the Spring of 2008.) Picking here, by the way, lasted from September 23 through October 4, and the results certainly speak emphatically for themselves.
Importer: Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL; tel. (205) 980-8802