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Wine Description
The Story
Richebourg is a king of a wine: the Colonnade of the Louvre, the Château of Versailles. You are impressed by its finesse, its length and its delicate sensations, endlessly changing. The fact that no element dominates the others enables you to appreciate all of its aromas, on the nose and on the palate. Force and subtlety in one wine ?
Richebourg reacts well to new oak, which it can dominate completely. It is therefore regularly matured in new casks of oak from the forests of Tronçais and Bertranges. It is easy to guess its depth and finesse, but this is a wine which is frequently discreet during the first months of its maturing period. To express itself, it needs a little encouragement (aeration, for example).
Richebourg requires very few tricks for it to express itself. There's no need to break up the cap or to control the temperature inopportunely; the vinification follows the general rules of the estate; no more, no less. The most important thing is to have ripe grapes to start with, which is not difficult, given the low yields.
Planted during the 1950s, this 'grand cru' vineyard regularly produces small grapes, perfect examples of 'pinot fin'. It is not particularly precocious and likes to take its time to mature; a characteristic which can also be found in the cask, once the wine has been made! The grapes present a fine balance between sugar and acids, certainly at the origin of this appellation's character.
The estate possesses about three quarters of an acre in 'les Verroilles', plus a tenth of an acre in 'les Richebourg', just below 'Cros Parantoux' (or close to an acre in total). The vines are oriented principally towards the east, and they are characterised by being planted in rows running north-south – a protection during hot years. Generally speaking, the site is fairly cool.
Wine Information
2006 is a classic year, very ripe and offering fine balance. The wines are open and charming, even if today, some of them are entering a transitional phase. Very soon after bottling, it was difficult to resist the lower-level wines..., and even the premiers and grands crus! Overall, this vintage is still gaining in strength, but constitutes a good alternative to 2005, which can wait.
Vintage 2006
2006 VINTAGE in Burgundy
The personality of Burgundy wines makes the difference
A charmer. Such is the epithet most frequently employed when Burgundy's newest vintage is evoked. Nearly two months after the grape harvest, and following a year typified by rather fantastical weather, Burgundy is finally catching its breath. The 2006 vintage, a preoccupying one which never allowed an idle moment, both in the vineyards and in the cellars, excels in its whites and surprises with its reds.
"Like the flowering of the vines which was concentrated over only a few days, the grape harvest did not follow its habitual course throughout the vineyards of Burgundy, " confided Michel Baldissini, President of the B.I.V.B.
Indeed, organizing the grape harvest was no simple undertaking, and choosing the optimal dates was particularly challenging as September's sunshine suddenly ripened grapes which had been previously languishing throughout August.
Even though a careful sorting of the harvest was required the result is now promising, particularly thanks to the knowledge and expertise of the winemakers. As such, even more than with other years, the choices made in the vineyard and during the vinification process were primordial for the creation of the wines of 2006.
2006 is a year that has never stopped surprising us, from its metrological conditions through to the wine that has finally been obtained. This wine is still being patiently worked with, and now shows the promise of many pleasant and memorable tastings.
The white wines
With their seductive nature, these wines promise to be excellent. Supple and fresh, they are already proving to be expressive and fruity in the mouth and boast considerable richness. Their aromas conjure up citrus fruits, white fruits and their flowers, with notes of sugared and stewed fruits at the more elevated degrees. Chablis expresses its typical minerality marvellously. We have noticed a very agreeable uniformity of quality from Chablis to Mâcon, as well as respect paid to the specificity of different wine districts.
The red wines
Burgundy globally presents high quality wines with nevertheless more uniformity in the Côte de Nuits and in the Auxerre district.
The wine boasts beautiful, intense colours. Indeed, thanks to analyses performed on the grapes to find out their "anthocyanes" quotient (this is the molecule contained in the grapes' skin which confers its red colour) and their extractability, the winemakers benefited from valuable indications which allowed them to choose the techniques best adapted to revealing the grapes' full potential. Just before the grape harvest, the longevity of the tannins was relatively high, but regular tasting during the maceration period allowed for the adjustment of these tannins so that more balanced wines were produced. The careful sorting of the grapes at harvest time, a determining factor this year, undeniably created the parameters of the red wines' quality.
Some are delicate and elegant, while we have found others to be robust and full-bodied, which indicated a fine capacity for ageing. Their aromas flirt equally with red fruits (raspberry, red currant) as with cherry, spices and cocoa.
As such, we find a concrete recompense for all the efforts made in the name of quality by the entirety of the players in the Burgundian wine industry.
