The 2006 Montrachet (from purchased grapes) is the ripest and most exotic wine in this year’s Latour collection. Musk, lily, and over-ripe peach and pear aromas usher in a sumptuous, creamy, yet juicy palate. The finish here preserves all of the decadent floral and over-ripe fruit character while introducing an intensely pungent amalgam of citrus zest, toasted nuts, wood smoke, and crushed stone. As with this year’s Chevalier Demoiselles, there is a bit of heat here but it does not seriously intrude nor preclude clarity in the finish. Louis-Fabrice Latour and oenologue Jean-Charles Thomas presented a 2006 collection that displayed the opulent richness that one would anticipate from such a ripe vintage, and from the Latour house style. Sometimes these wines want a bit for clarity, definition and distinctiveness – occasionally they are rather obviously marked by dairy flavors from their malolactic conversion – but the best of them have much to offer. Since I did not have opportunity to include in my issue 179 report notes on the Chablis bottlings of Simmonet-Febvre – a domaine Latour purchased in 2003 (and which also bottles some lovely sparkling wines) – I have made note of them here. Louis Latour has numerous importers throughout the U.S.