2005 Domaine de Courcel, Pommard Premier Cru, Les Grands Epenots

Courcel’s 2005 Pommard Grand Clos des Epenots (which exhibits a notably darker color than Courcel’s other wines) leads with aromas of cassis, smoked meat, bitter chocolate, and resin. In the mouth, this is concentrated and compact in structure, yet rich and expansive in flavor, with dark fruit, meat stock and chocolate mingling in a concentrated reduction, tinged by bitter fruit skin, fruit pit, coffee ground and wet stone. Ample, rich fruit covers the abundant and tightly-stitched tannin, but the almost savagely intense finish betrays a hint of heat from the wine’s roughly 14.5% alcohol. Something tells me that this potentially long-lived animal of a wine is being a bit obstreperous today. (Incidentally, Confuron’s pithy, piquant, darkly-hued 2004 Grands Epenots and Rugiens display unusual potential for that vintage, although their similarly elevated levels of alcohol are more likely to catch up with them.) Importer: Diageo Chateau and Estate Wines Company, New York, NY; tel. (212) 419-1400

Bright crimson. Pale rim. Chestnut notes with some very pretty fruit. Quite dense and seductive. Lots of chewy tannins on the finish. Very dry finish. Bit of oak a bit too obvious but good intentions. (JR)