2009 Chambertin Grand Cru, Maison Ilan

"A notably cooler and more restrained nose offers up notes of ripe red currant, wet stone, warm earth and a game note that can also be found on the rich, full-bodied and tautly muscular flavors that possess outstanding detail and verve on the very firm and mildly austere finish that seems to go on and on. Despite the youthful austerity, the mouth feel is really quite silky and like the Charmes, there is a lovely sense of balance and proportion.  Drink 2019+.

Another American has succumbed to the siren call of Burgundy and could not have picked a more propitious vintage in which to do so. Ray Walker, like me and many others that I know, was once in finance and found another calling in the world of wine. The range is small but Walker has already been fortunate enough to find more sources for 2010 and thus there will be more appellations available soon. Walker's philosophy is really very simple: pick ripe fruit, handle it respectfully and the less you handle it, the better. In other words, it's a combination of let the wine make itself through a benign yet respectful "less is more" approach. To this end, there are no pumps and virtually no new wood and bottling will be done without fining or filtration. While it was hard to go very far wrong in a vintage like 2009 (and as the scores and comments will confirm, Walker did extremely well), we'll see how this philosophy holds up in more challenging vintages. But after having an in-depth philosophical discussion with this exceedingly polite, well-spoken and humble young man, it didn't take me very long to understand that Walker "gets it", which is to say he knows why he's in Burgundy and what his role in the process of vineyard to wine to consumer is. And as such, I have a hunch that we're going to see some exciting wines from Walker going forward."  Allen Meadows, Burghound