Here the lightly perfumed nose is both fresher and more elegant offering up a mix of high-toned red pinot fruit and earth aromas that give way to refined pure and seductively textured flavors that display a subtle hint of minerality on the mouth coating finish. This is not as complex as the best of these 1ers but there is enough depth of material that greater depth may very well develop.

The 2009 Morey St. Denis Les Ruchots is totally dark rich and enveloping in its sensual fruit. This is a beautiful voluptuous style of Morey. I commented that this was the most `Michel Magnien styled' wine in the Maison lineup to which Frederic Magnien replied that this was the one vineyard he owned among all the parcels that inform the negociant label. Interestingly the parcel is worked along the exact same lines as the Michel Magnien wines but the fruit is vinified in the Frederic Magnien part of the winery. Magnien uses this parcel to try out new techniques before he applies them to the Domaine wines.