Landanger certainly managed to extract an unusually charming, sweet personality from the site of his 2006 Santenay Les Gravieres. Ripe strawberry and cherry in the nose follow onto a relatively light but flatteringly-textured palate, picking up hints of caramel on route to a satisfyingly long finish on which just a faint perturbation of tannin impinges. I would plan to enjoy this in its first several years, although if it surprises me with further longevity that will be more the long-term rule than the exception for Santenay at this estate.
Patrick Landanger reports having fermented longer and worked harder to extract flavor from his 2006 crop, and while the results are undeniably concentrated, on the occasion of my tasting, several suffered a bit from opacity and tannic severity.
Importer: Langdon-Shiverick Imports, Cleveland, OH; tel. (216) 861 6800 and a Peter Vezan Selection, Paris; fax 011 33 1 42 55 42 93