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95 ST. "Saturated, bright ruby-red. Flamboyantly aromatic, wild nose features blackberry, meat, licorice, minerals, espresso and sexy oak. Like liquid silk on the palate, but with great concentration to the perfumed flavors of dark fruits, game and violet. Wonderfully classy grand cru that finishes with superb length and lift and fine-grained, utterly seamless tannins. Seems a far cry from Dugat's more extractive, chunkier wines of the late '80s and early '90s. This obviously got a very soft bottling, without fining or filtration. Bernard Dugat has farmed organically since 2003 and finds that his vines are resisting maladies better. And, as he has no clones and no large berries, he has fewer problems with rot than most of his neighbors. In 2006, Dugat did a pass through the vines three weeks before the harvest to remove any rotten berries, and eventually brought in fruit with healthy sugar levels, chaptalizing only a bit for the basic cuv es. Crop levels were just 28 hectoliters per hectare on average. Dugat describes his young 2006s as rounder and more harmonious than his 2004s . . ." Stephen Tanzer, Vinous.com, Mar 2008 |