The Pousse d'Or 2006 Santenay Clos Tavennes delivers a gamey, alkaline, smoky nose, and only on the palate does ripe red fruit (cherry and raspberry) emerge to prominence. Less charming and with its tannic structure more obviously and awkwardly apparent than the Gravieres, this however displays greater complexity and finishes with intriguingly mineral and animal length of the sort that has helped made this bottling (based on a high percentage of now 90 year old vines) so versatile at this address since long before Landanger purchased the property. I would pair this at table with its tannins in mind, and assess the value of further cellaring in another 2-3 years.
Patrick Landanger reports having fermented longer and worked harder to extract flavor from his 2006 crop, and while the results are undeniably concentrated, on the occasion of my tasting, several suffered a bit from opacity and tannic severity.
Importer: Langdon-Shiverick Imports, Cleveland, OH; tel. (216) 861 6800 and a Peter Vezan Selection, Paris; fax 011 33 1 42 55 42 93