From parcels in Les Cognees, Tres Girard, and Chenevry – all toward or below the route nationale – Lignier's 2006 Morey-St.-Denis Vieilles Vignes brims with ripe blackberry and black raspberry, mingled with smoked meat and resin. While the tannins here are by no means perfectly polished, there is a good sense of underlying density as well as compensatory grip and sappy persistence. I would give this a couple of years in bottle and then enjoy over the following several. Virgile Lignier shared the surprise expressed by many growers at how steadily the 2006s improved in the course of their elevage. He experienced only a 15% drop in net yield vis-a-vis 2005, noting that most of the fruit he discarded was what had suffered from hail rather than succumbed to rain and rot. Becky Wasserman Selection (various importers), Le Serbet; fax 011-333-80-24-29-70