1996 Nuits St Georges Les Damodes

This wine is dark-ruby-colored and has an expressive nose of blackberries, cassis liqueur, and black cherries. This chewy-textured, masculine, powerful, fat, and muscular offering is crammed with red and black cherries, minerals, and toasty oak. It is juicy, fresh, highly-structured, filled with satiny tannins and has a persistent, focused, and marvelously delineated finish. Consumers lucky enough to acquire this wine are advised to cellar it for a few years. Projected maturity: 2002-2008. Philippe and Vincent Lecheneaut produce wines that resemble them - strong, muscular, and expressive. In the past I have described certain wines as being like ballerinas, well-known actresses, football players, etc. These are rugby players, strong, rough (at first), but explosive, with considerable stamina (staying power). I tasted these wines twice, once in November, 1997, and then again in late January, 1998. At my first tasting the wines were quite backward, oaky, and tannic but two and a half months later they had softened while still displaying loads of fruit. Some of these wines are worth making every effort to locate. Importer: Robert Kacher Selections, Washington, DC; tel. (202) 832-9083.