Good full red. Captivating, perfumed nose offers raspberry, strawberry, minerals, faded rose and cinnamon, with stronger new oak scents emerging with air. Lush, creamy and sweet but with a penetrating quality thanks to its mineral spine and pungent notes of spice and floral pastilles. Concentrated but not particularly fleshy, this fascinating grand cru finishes very long and aromatic. This bottling has consistently flagged my attention in recent years.

From their morsel of this great but small site, Bertagna’s 2005 Clos St.-Denis displays an overtly fruity cherry and black raspberry nose, lightly-jellied fruit presentation on the palate, and charred meat and wet stone undertones that nicely complement the wine’s sweet finishing fruit. Hopefully, this will take on more refinement, delineation and complexity with time. Christophe Vial has move here from de Montille to become the cellarmaster, but oenologist Claire Forestier was responsible for these 2005s. I hope I shall prove to have hit them on a bad day. But abstracting from possible (in some instances obvious) effects of having just been racked to tank and sulfured in preparation for bottling, I found many of these wines lacking in striking personalities or grip. Some evinced toasty hints of barrel despite the percentage of new wood being low (only rising above 20-30% in the case of Chambertin) suggesting that they might be a bit “underwined.” Also recommended: 2005 Hautes-Cotes de Nuits ($ 28.00-20.00; 84), 2005 Vougeot ($65.00-70.00; 85), 2005 Vougeot Les Petits Vougeot ($95.00-100.00; 85-87) 2005 Vougeot Les Cras ($95.00-100.00; 85-87+?), 2005 Vougeot Clos de la Perriere ($110.00-115.00; 85-87+?), 2005 Chambolle-Musigny ($65.00-70.00; 85-87), Importer: Weygandt-Metzler, Unionville, PA; tel. (610) 486-0800.