Rossignol says his 2006 Beaune Clos Du Roy comes from a site that is quick to ripen and normally (including this year) weighed in at his highest potential alcohol (around 13.5.%, although in 2005 it hit 14%). He included nearly half of the stems this year, but says that as tiny as the berries were in 2005 it had been impossible then. This smells as dark as it looks, evincing aromas of blackberry, resin, high-toned boot polish, and molasses. A headily-ripe concentration of blackberry, plum, and dark cherry on the palate is moderated by the tartness of fruit skin, bitterness of cherry pit, and the thinning effect of volatile, distillate-like esters. Coffee, licorice, and nutmeg contribute further to the roasted richness of a long finish. Some tasters may find this highly extroverted Pinot overbearing, and it certainly is unusual for the vintage. I would be inclined to plan on drinking it within the next 5-6 years. "Excellent ripeness came late, but then very quickly," reports Nicolas Rossignol, who began harvested his 2006s already in mid September. "Volnay tends to be precocious, anyway," he adds, "and you have to consider the intensive way in which I've been working the vines lately, with very low yields and intensive canopy management. I wanted to preserve freshness and equilibrium." Rossignol reported that his intention had been to bottle his 2006s correspondingly early to preserve their fruit and refinement, but the mid-winter of 2007-2008 was so bitterly cold that they seized-up, and in the end he permitted them what, for him, is a normal 18 months' elevage. Deeming his fruit - which largely weighed in between 12 and just over 13% potential alcohol - to be healthy, he employed whole clusters and stems selectively, depending on how he thought the technique fit the particular appellation. Once again, I was unable to taste more than half of the roughly two dozen Rossignol's wines - traversing five communes - and he declined to show me this year's Fremiets or Taillepieds on the grounds of their respective three- and two-barrel total production. (That said, Rossignol very generously introduced me by means of a sample to the wines of his neighbor Jean-Marc Boulet - see under that name for my notes.) For further details on Rossignol and his approach to Pinot, see my report in issue 171. Importers: Martine's Wines. Novato, CA; tel. (415) 883-0400; also a Becky Wasserman Selection, Le Serbet (various importers); fax 011-333-80-24-29-70