The 2006 Clos De La Roche Grand Cru knocked it out of the park. Still incredibly youthful, it blossomed over the course of the evening, revealing loads of spice and forest floor characteristics paired with beautiful fruit. It certainly has a vibrant, almost crunchy style, yet the mid-palate is terrific, it’s flawlessly balanced, has ample ripeness, and is just a joy to drink. It’s just now at the early stages of maturity and has another 15-20 years (if not more) of longevity ahead of it. I’d certainly be thrilled with bottles in the cellar.

As complex as the Bonnes Mares here there is even more aromatic depth with a gorgeous mix of red and dark berry fruit spice earth game underbrush and a subtle minerality that can also be found on the rich full sweet and intense big-bodied flavors brimming with buckets of dry extract on the mouth coating long powerful and utterly stunning finish. This is a big 2006 yet the focus balance and sense of harmony are riveting.

The Dujac 2006 Clos de la Roche is a dark brooding Pinot no less complex or long than its Clos St.-Denis sibling. Here the animal side is a gamey faintly sweaty beast; the fruits dark and as bitter as they are sweet; and the sense of chocolate-like richness remarkable in the context of the vintage. And rather than an energetic sense of interplay this conveys a layering of fruit meat and stony saline mineral elements supported by tactile viscosity and a sappy sense of almost indelible cling. Lucky are those who can follow and compare both of these wines over the next dozen years.-David Schildknecht