From sites just outside Brochon – representing 17 parcels from three hectares whose vines are an average age of 60 – Geantet’s 2005 Gevrey-Chambertin Vieilles Vignes smells of lightly-cooked raspberry and black cherry with grilled meats. Compact and palpably extract-rich on the palate, it mingles fresh cherry and raspberry with fresh beef blood, carrying into a strong finish with suggestions of chalk dust. The tannins are very fine-grained, and one could expect this outstandingly concentrated if as yet only moderately-complex wine to require 3-5 years before being worth revisiting. Vincent Geantet as usual bottled well before year’s end, and his wines seemed to be having a particularly expressive, fruit-filled day when I tasted. Interestingly, much as he bottles all of his wines together, so, Geantet’s barrel regimen is the same regardless of appellation: one-third each of new, one-year and two-year wood. He prolonged the pre-fermentative maceration to eight days, which seems to have enhanced the brightness of fruit exhibited by these wines. I must say I did not come prepared for quite such an impressive collection as that which Geantet delivered. Importer: Kysela Pere et Fils, Winchester, VA; tel. (540) 722 9228