From a parcel northeast of town on the Brochon line and another below Charmes, a 2005 Gevrey-Chambertin offers ripe black cherry, raspberry, cedar, holly berry and vanilla in the nose, and impresses with its clarity of fruit, its fat and richness on the palate, and the sheer juicy exuberance of its finish, which subtly restrains the wine’s primary sweetness by offering pleasant hints of bitterness. This outstanding village-level wine might shut down for a while after bottling but I am more inclined to believe you could enjoy drinking it any time over the next 5-7 years. The Lecheneaut brothers – Vincent and Philippe – were still hoping to get the last of two wines (a Chorey-les-Beaune and one of two lots of village Nuits-St.-Georges, the final blend of which, while promising, could therefore not be fairly assessed) to go through malo at the time of my visit. But other than that, things were looking delicious indeed in this cellar. Alcohol levels came in almost shockingly low given the ripeness of flavors on display (in fact, the brothers chaptalized a bit to extend the fermentations) and most but not all of the wines had the requisite concentration to resist any obvious marking by their 50-100% of new oak. These are forward, early-flattering, often positively flamboyant wines for the vintage. The samples I tasted had been drawn in proper proportion just prior to their having been racked and assembled for bottling (which was imminent).Importer: Robert Kacher Selections, Washington, DC; tel. (202) 832-9083.