Bonnes Mares, Domaine d'Auvenay 2006

Even though Bize-Leroy's Domaine d'Auvenay 2006 Bonnes Mares does not display the darkness or saturation of color one often encounters in her wines (and in most of this year's Domaine Leroy collection), there is a mysteriously smoky, blackish suggestion at the rim of the sort that is common chez Leroy and d'Auvenay, and that one encounters nowhere outside the realm of red Burgundy. Ripe black raspberry, brown spices, herbal distillates, and meaty, pan dripping-like notes migrate from a gorgeous nose to a savory, saliva-inducing palate of almost velvet-like tannic refinement that – in the manner of many of the best Pinots of this vintage – manages to be both soothing and stimulating. This coats the palate almost like some medicinal lozenge of black raspberry, herbal concentrate, and mineral ores, and finishes with prodigious length and depth of flavor, yet without any sense of weight.