2008 Volnay Caillerets

Around 60% of the crop that informed Bouchard’s 2008 Volnay Caillerets Ancien Cuvee Carnot was spared by the July hail, and around 40% of that remainder declassified. But these circumstances still leave 8-9,000 bottles worth, which I tasted from tank. Musky narcissus, smoky Lapsang black tea, and black fruits on the nose lead to a silken-textured yet invigorating, subtly tart but berry-ripe palate suffused with chalk and savory salinity. This finishes with precisely the sort of “animated interchange of fruit, mineral, and inner-mouth floral elements” I credited to the 2006, and here the effect is both strikingly buoyant and positively reverberative. A bottle opened 24 hours earlier (for Michel Bettane, as it happens) had not lost any of its allure. I would look for at least 15 years of excitement. Director-winemaker Philippe Prost made no attempt to minimize the challenges of 2008 and was careful to distinguish between its wind-borne concentration and genuinely ideal phenolic maturity (approached more nearly this year in white than red). He opined that the wide window afforded for relaxed picking despite the late calendar date was critical, since the levels of ripeness were so disparate from one site to another. That said, he showed me an outstanding collection of Pinots. Ironically, as he pointed out, ripeness was also disparate in one of the two earliest vintages on record, 2007, yet picking – while fitful – was anything but relaxed due to the pressure of rot. And here, too, Bouchard scored excellent successes. By means of, where necessary, “swapping lees” between barrels to inoculate stubborn lots, Prost says he was able to get all of his 2008s through malo-lactic conversion in timely fashion, which he considers especially important with Pinot. Bottling of the 2008 reds – with a few exceptions mentioned in my notes and due to have been bottled in April – took place in December and January, the same schedule adopted for their 2007s. I did not have an opportunity to taste nearly all of Bouchard’s vast collection from either vintage, and have in the text of my notes indicated a few from among their 2008s that I take to represent significant omissions. (I have not noted “Domaine” to distinguish those wines that are part of the Bouchard, except in cases where there is another otherwise eponymous wine.) Importer: Henriot, Inc, New York, NY; tel. (212) 605-6767

Good dark red. Perfumed nose combines blackberry and licorice. Juicy, spicy and intensely flavored, with some obvious oakiness giving the tannins an early toughness. Not quite as pristine in the mouth as on the nose: I find this rather musclebound and imploded today. The yield here was very low due to hail. Director Follin-Arbelet noted that in 1937, the INAO wanted to elevate the Caillerets-Dessus, along with Beaune Greves, Pommard Epenots and Rugiens and Meursault Perrieres, to grand cru status, but that the owners objected to this plan for tax reasons. (The Clos des Ch e nes, the last wine to finishes its malolactic fermentation, was too reduced and disturbed to assess in November.)

Sweet red and black fruit – more intense on the nose than any Bouchard reds tasted so far. Savoury, dry, harmonious. (JH)