2008 Chambertin

(these vines are now at least 90 years old, according to Dugat) Bright ruby-red. Wonderfully pure, perfumed nose offers kirsch, blackberry, violet and bitter chocolate. Almost shockingly creamy and silky on entry, then seamless but youthfully imploded in the middle palate, with a violet perfume giving the wine magical lift and grip and carrying through on the endless finish. An essence of pinot noir and of this great site. This incredibly concentrated wine offers a rare combination of size and finesse-and all with a moderate 12.9% alcohol. I found this nearly impossible to spit.

100% new oak. Very old vines, just one barrel. Very majestic and broad and glorious and concentrated. Meaty, almost leathery on the nose. Black pepper! Great richness of fruit with the tannins really quite difficult to find. Really almost soft! But with lots and lots of fruit. Quite low acid. A Chambertin for those in a hurry. A charmer even if not a stunner. (JR)

From its usual custom 195-liter barrel (what that must weigh on the mind of its tonnelier!), Dugat-Py’s 2008 Chambertin offers sweetly-ripe blackberry and cassis mingled with licorice, cardamom, dark chocolate, and black pepper. Deep red meat richness wells up, while rose petal and peony perfume generate captivating inner-mouth allure perfectly-suited to the suave, refined spread of ultra-fine tannins and to this wine’s utter transparency of even such richly-concentrated fruit to nuanced suggestions of salt, chalk, peat, and stone. This combination of richness and viscosity with vivacity; and of profundity with energizing levity, not to mention such textural seduction and subtly vibratory palate persistence is rare indeed. And I’ll be sure to let you know should I ever find it in any red wine that’s not a Burgundian Pinot – so please return the favor! ||“The world is already full of talk about 2009,” said Bernard Dugat late last winter, “but how about 2008?!” Indeed, for growers as successful with that tricky vintage as was Dugat, its neglect rankles with good reason. At a reported 23-25 hectoliters per hectare, Bernard Dugat’s yields in 2008 were low even by his standards, which he says explains his having harvested everything by October 2. (His 2007 harvest commenced August 30, less unusual in its vintage’s context.) Only a couple of lots from 2008 even reached 13% alcohol, yet there is no question as to their ample ripeness or overall concentration. Dugat remained largely faithful to his routine of total vendange entier. He racked the wines in late winter (after which I tasted them) and bottled them in the course of the spring. (The 2008 Petit Chapelle was still full of post-malo gas in early spring of last year and I was never able to properly assess it. For further details on Bernard Dugat’s approach, see my report in issue 170. Many details concerning his sites can be found there as well as in issue 186.) Wine Advocate.June, 2010