(96-97) Last tasted from barrel, but in entirely stable and clarified condition, Zind-Humbrecht’s 2006 Pinot Gris Clos Jebsal Selection de Grains Nobles is truly Esszencia-like: barely wine (at around 5% alcohol); nearly gelatinous yet weightless; and hiding some 375 grams of sugar (analysis had not yet been rendered). On the one hand there are nougat and caramel on display, while on the other there is a mingling of citrus, liqueur, citrus oils, and fresh citrus that conveys reverberative intensity to the palate and causes my eyes and salivary glands to water and my nostrils to flare. Oxidative complexity of toasted nuts and aromatic old furniture wood add the inscrutable mystery of the amazing in store here. There could hardly be a more amazing tribute to a vintage that most growers would like to forgot, than this elixir that will almost certainly be glorious a quarter century or more from now by which time, indeed, 2006 will have otherwise been forgotten. -David Schildknecht