Boillot's 2006 Pommard Les Croix Noires – from 60+ year old vines in a tiny cru just south of the village (and tasted just prior to bottling) – is redolent of dark berry distillates and smoked meat. Lean and relatively light-weight, it nonetheless tenaciously coats the palate with pasted dried berries, smoked meat, and a faintly numbing layer of tannins. This displays no more primary sweetness of fruit than the corresponding Fremiers. Nut oils, peat, and somehow ore-like mineral notes well-up in the back, lending a sense of depth and mystery, and the spirituous notes persist like a pungent vapor. This should be fascinating to follow for as much as a decade – and would perhaps have been less severe on another occasion – though anticipating its tannins entirely resolving would be an illusion. Louis Boillot fields a diverse array of appellations reflecting in large part his Volnaysien grandfather's having become established in Gevrey. (For more about this family, see my report on Louis's brother Pierre in this issue. Like the wines of his wife Ghislaine Barthod – with whom he shares a facility in Chambolle – most of Louis Boillot's 2006s had not yet been bottled when I last tasted them.) Importer: Rosenthal Wine Merchant, Pine Plains, NY; tel. (800) 910-1990

Boillot's 2006 Pommard Les Croix Noires – from 60+ year old vines in a tiny cru just south of the village (and tasted just prior to bottling) – is redolent of dark berry distillates and smoked meat. Lean and relatively light-weight, it nonetheless tenaciously coats the palate with pasted dried berries, smoked meat, and a faintly numbing layer of tannins. This displays no more primary sweetness of fruit than the corresponding Fremiers. Nut oils, peat, and somehow ore-like mineral notes well-up in the back, lending a sense of depth and mystery, and the spirituous notes persist like a pungent vapor. This should be fascinating to follow for as much as a decade – and would perhaps have been less severe on another occasion – though anticipating its tannins entirely resolving would be an illusion. Louis Boillot fields a diverse array of appellations reflecting in large part his Volnaysien grandfather's having become established in Gevrey. (For more about this family, see my report on Louis's brother Pierre in this issue. Like the wines of his wife Ghislaine Barthod – with whom he shares a facility in Chambolle – most of Louis Boillot's 2006s had not yet been bottled when I last tasted them.)Importer: Rosenthal Wine Merchant, Pine Plains, NY; tel. (800) 910-1990