Bouchard Père & Fils : Clos Vougeot Grand cru Domaine 2006

The Bouchard domaine 2006 Clos Vougeot (there is also a bottling from purchased fruit) smells of diverse ripe berries with hints of smoke and resin; it hits the palate with ample, lightly cooked fruit allied to multi-boned meat stock and dusted with brown spices. This site-typical Pinot shows impressive depth and a saliva-inducing, savory finish, and while it may never be winsome or elegant, it is sufficiently structured, interesting, and viscerally compelling to merit following for at least half a dozen years. Director Philippe Prost emphasized the importance of flexible, 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 in the domaine vineyards (as opposed to those under contract) and the estate wines are certainly predictably stronger as a group. (I have generally noted in the following that which wines are from Bouchard’s domaine and which from contract fruit, but have explicitly included this in 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, later 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