Dom. Aleth Girardin 2005 Pommard 1er Cru Les Épenots.
Never had this before, think it was a solo bottle I picked up in Chicago a decade ago, but Andrea wanted Pinot to go with an autumnal pasta with pan-roasted delicata squash and wilted greens; I’d been craving Burgundy while she was out of town, and this seemed a promising way to welcome her home. For the first 30 minutes, the nose and palate stared each other down a little suspiciously, with the effusive, floral aromas daring the grippy texture to loosen up and come out to play, which it did in due course, producing a rich, harmonious, complete wine, roses at the top down to licorice and earth at the bottom. If anything, there was a tradeoff of aromatic complexity for texture as the wine fleshed out over two hours, but this wasn’t a loss, just one of those evolutions in the glass that makes for an engaging bottle.