The Esmonin 2005 Gevrey-Chambertin Clos St-Jacques – unsurprisingly, incorporating virtually 100% whole cluster and new wood – bursts from the glass with scents of soy, aromatic woods, ripe black fruits, resin, rose, iris, violets, and roasted meats. Not at all effusively fruity or showy on entry, this nevertheless totally saturates the palate with fresh essence of blackberry and cherry, along with smoked and roasted meats, soy and stone, licorice and herbs. Quite tannic and palpably dense in the mouth, it displays a much sterner, less winsome personality than the Gevrey V.V. – but what a personality it has! In a remarkable finishing act, the tannins then seem to melt away, the wine grabs your palate, showering it with flowers and herbs, slathering it with black fruits and animal fat, dashing it against stones, reviving it with mineral salts, and leaving it exhilarated but utterly wrung-out. Esmonin doesn’t think her 2005s will ever “shut down”. But this one might just tell you to shut up: I suspect it will continue to control the agenda if opened any time over the next 12-15 years. (The strikingly floral, salty, savory, dynamic 2004 is gorgeous – if not in the same exalted league as this ‘05 – and well worth cellaring mid-term.) Sylvie Esmonin is a staunch believer in the use of whole clusters with stems (“the method of my grandfather’s day”) to enhance florality, fruit and structure, which presupposes late harvest. But she claims that this method of vinification itself helps moderate the efficiency of alcoholic conversion. In any event, levels of alcohol were the last thing noticeable as I was wowed by this year’s collection which, as usual, she planned not to begin bottling any earlier than April. Importer: Louis/Dressner Selections, New York, NY; tel. (212) 334 8191.

Very concentrated and jewelly and full of the scents of the mountain and really rich fruit. (JR)