2008 Charmes Chambertin Tres Vieilles Vignes

Medium red with a hint of amber at the rim. Complex, mellow scents of raspberry, dried flowers, mocha and iron-like minerality. A precise, lightly saline wine with lovely sappy thrust and energy to its sharply delineated flavors of crushed strawberry, raspberry, red cherry, flowers and salty minerals. Superb fruit retention here for a ten-year-old Burgundy. Finishes classically dry and salty, with a subtle, resounding whiplash of red fruits and minerals. This wine has tightened up considerably since I first tasted it shortly after the bottling. I love this style! (ST)

Medium red. Closed but pure nose offers dark berries, minerals, flowers, iron and tobacco. Dense, silky and sweet, with terrific floral lift to the middle palate. A wonderfully aromatic, floral midweight of great finesse. Best today on the very long, subtle finish, which lingers with cherry, spices and flowers. This should evolve at a snail's pace.

Scents of kirsch and almond extract mingle with fresh dark cherry and purple plum in the high-toned, intense nose of Roty’s 2008 Charmes-Chambertin Tres Vieilles Vignes, to which charred meat, marrow, licorice, and peat add complexity that follows on an expansive, almost plush palate. Sizzling pungency of black pepper; hints of caramel from barrel, and persistent black tea and peat-like smokiness serve for both enhanced richness and a degree of enervation. But what one gains in opulence vis-a-vis the Griotte one sacrifices in brightness and a degree of energy. Still, these are early days for this wine sure to be worth following for 15-20 years. Philippe Roty insists that because of his rigorous canopy-management and green harvesting, plus a further late summer crop-drop, rot was not the problem for him in 2008 (or for that matter in 2007). But ripeness, he readily acknowledged, was. “In 2008, we simply lacked 8 or 10 days of sunshine,” he concludes, admitting that he harvested his lesser terroirs first (beginning September 23) and his grand crus last. “Which would you want to make sure ripens, Bourgogne or Charmes Chambertin?” he asked with a rhetorical laugh. This reversal of normal procedure – when taken together with the cautious extraction Roty felt committed to buy unripe pips – resulted in a 2008 collection that is mildly disappointing in its lowest echelons and among village Gevreys, though the Marsannays continued to offer considerable interest for their modest prices, whereas they were decidedly weaker partners in 2007. (Since the 2008 hail in Marsannay hit largely in the Chenove direction, it had little effect on Roty’s locations.) Tasting at the press and halting pressing as soon as bitterness or under-ripeness were detected was, says Roty, another critical factor in rendering satisfying 2008s. Malos – other than two stubborn whites on which Roty simply gave up! – finished here on a normal schedule at the end of their first winter, and thus in no way compromised his plan to as usual bottle the wines in April. I tasted in late February a pre-assemblage set aside for me two weeks in advance of my visit because in the meantime all of the lots had been sulfured in barrel. Importer: Alain Junguenet, Wines of France, Mountainside, NJ; tel. (908) 654-6173