Gevrey Mes Cinq Terroirs, Domaine Denis Mortet 2005

A fresh and moderately earthy nose features subtle spice and underbrush nuances that can also be found on the rich, full and sweet flavors that offer excellent delineation and verve on the persistent finish. There is ample mid-palate fat that does a fine job of buffering the underlying structure and this should be approachable young but have the capacity to age over the mid-term. A high quality villages.

The 2005 Gevrey-Chambertin Mes Cinq Terroirs perpetuates the practice begun with the 2004 vintage, of combining the fruit from Au Velle, En Motrot, Combe du Dessus, En Deree and En Champs (all downhill from Champeaux on the north side of Gevrey) into a single and - at least in this instance -- highly synergistic village wine, representing nearly half of the estate's total acreage. Fruit from these sites is co-fermented in two lots segregated by age of vine, and then blended (which we did in the glass, since like its stable mates, this wine will be racked only once, in March, pursuant to bottling). Ripe black fruits with carnal, fungal and mineral nuances combine for a clear, bright, satin-textured, and substantially-concentrated impression, free of any superficial sweetness and successfully resisting the influence of the all new barrels. Long, rolling low tones of black fruits and forest floor complete a picture very 2005 in its combination of bright fresh-fruit acids with dark, even slightly somber hues of flavor. Taking over this domaine in his mid-twenties, Arnaud Mortet appears poised to bottle a superb collection from his father's final harvest. The crew took a brief second pass over certain parcels, he relates, and the bunches from some young vines required triage, but otherwise the fruit was perfect at first picking. Malolactic fermentations continued well into last autumn. Mortet emphasizes that he will continue a search for elegance and refinement begun in recent years, with a lighter touch during fermentation, and at least for vintage 2006 the employment of some previously-used barrels in order to de-emphasize wood at the modest end of his price spectrum.