This is a wine that I appear to have badly misjudged when tasting out of barrel. I had the bottled 2006 Bellevue several times, and it was consistently hard, austere, and lean. Generally I love what this great terroir, surrounded by such famous names as Angelus and the two Beausejours, can produce. Moreover, there is no doubting the genius of the two men responsible for this wine, Nicolas Thienpont and Stephane Derenoncourt. Nevertheless, I was surprised to see just how hard, austere, and angular this wine is. It is hard to find any charm or deep, concentrated, ripe fruit in this muscular, structured, forbiddingly tannic, and seemingly out of balance wine.

Delicate and fruity, with berry character, silky tannins and a medium finish. Not overdone. Pleasant. Score range: 85-88 -JS