Like its Volnay Caillerets counterpart last tasted by me from tank on the day it was bottled, the Boillot 2006 Pommard Fremiers reflects its old vines in concentration but delivers a rather astringent if formidable performance, with roast meat, peat, soy, dried animal blood, and crushed stone taking precedence over dark fruits. This wine's sheer density as well as its abundant tannins are evident in its finishing chew, but at the same time, it gives you something to chew on in an entirely positive sense as well, possessed as it is of the sort of intrigue that makes one declare of red Burgundy "how could this come from grapes?" I can imagine a near decade-long though perhaps rather somber future for this, and it should prove quite interesting at table and not necessarily just with red meat.
Louis Boillot fields a diverse array of appellations reflecting in large part his Volnaysien grandfather's having become established in Gevrey. (For more about this family, see my report on Louis's brother Pierre in this issue. Like the wines of his wife Ghislaine Barthod – with whom he shares a facility in Chambolle – most of Louis Boillot's 2006s had not yet been bottled when I last tasted them.)
Importer: Rosenthal Wine Merchant, Pine Plains, NY; tel. (800) 910-1990