From the sixty year old vines rooted I chalk and flint that in my experience here (since 1985) nearly always give the most memorable but also the most austere Germain wine of a vintage, their 2006 Beaune Les Cras Vieilles Vignes displays formidable concentration and grip. Ripe black cherry and purple plum with their pits; roasted meats; peat, chalk and stone; bittersweet herbal extractions and nippy spices are the building blocks of this unusually structured 2006. There is also a juiciness of rare meat and fresh berries and a resinous sappiness to compliment the austerity of this wine's adamant mineral expressions. The feel is firmer and the chalkiness far more pronounced than with any of the other Chateau de Chorey 2006s, but at the same time this is purest in fruit. I would plan on following this for at least a decade. Benoit Germain (for more about whose direction of his family's estate, consult my report in issue 171) managed to capture energy, minerality, and elegance in his white 2006s (from Pernand, Meursault, and Beaune), and most of his reds follow suit – thanks in no small part, surely, to rigorous fruit-sorting – making an excellent case for themselves, while not pretending to challenge their superb 2005 predecessors for structure or aging potential. The vintage reminded him of 2001, Germain says, when he panicked as the first Pinot fruit came in to realize how much potential for hardness and bitterness there was that had to be managed by means of an adjusted vinificatory regimen (shorter, warmer, fewer punchdowns). The 2001s were not as inherently tannic, he hastens to add, but on the other hand there was rot to deal with in 2006.A Becky Wassserman Selection (various importers), Le Serbet, Beaune; fax 011-33-3-80-24-29-70 Also imported by Simon N Cellars, Charlottesville, VA; tel. (434) 977-4476 and a Scott Levy Selection, Norcross, GA; tel. (770) 730-0361