The basic Roty 2006 Gevrey-Chambertin concentrates ripe cherry fruit, offering an invigorating tartness, underlain by fine-grained though abundant tannins and a rich sense of roasted red meatiness. This finishes with refreshing primary juiciness and stimulation. It isn't especially refined or hugely complex, but its solid simple virtues are quite compelling for their purity and harmonious concentration, and this will probably be even better in a couple of years, after which it should be delicious for half a dozen more. Philippe Roty is among the many growers to assert that under-ripe fruit rather than rot was what really drove his 2006 selection process. "But, hail or no hail, I do a strict triage regardless; and besides" he notes with a laugh, "it hails every year in at least one part of Marsannay." He picked in a relative hurry the last week of September, because "as far as I'm concerned, above 13% potential alcohol you have surmaturite, and that's not good." Besides, like the Mugneret sisters and a considerable number of other top-notch growers, Roty favors routinely – if only slightly – chaptalizing his entire range to promote longer and, he believes, flavor- and texture-enhancing fermentation. (While I have mentioned in the text of my tasting notes those wines that are part of the personal domaine of Philippe Roty and bottled under his name, I have not reflected this in the naming of the wines, as the same label is used for those as for the Domaine Joseph Roty wines and they are all vinified and aged together by the same team.) Importer: Alain Junguenet, Wines of France, Mountainside, NJ; tel. (908) 654-6173