2008 Domaine Méo-Camuzet Nuits-Saint-Georges Aux Boudots 1er Cru

Highly aromatic nose combines red cherry, pepper, spices and iron. Sweet and perfumed in the mouth, with aromatic wild herbs providing terrific lift. This showed an almost peppery acidity after the set of 2009 barrel samples I tasted here, but the texture is seamless and the tannins ripe. (ST)

In tank waiting bottling when I last tasted it, the Meo-Camuzet 2008 Nuits-St.-Georges Aux Boudots smells and tastes of confitured blackberry, cocoa powder, and soy, with caramel and resin notes well-integrated, and humus, peat, forest floor, as well as salty notes taking on increasing importance as you work the wine up in your mouth, the upshot being a complex, savory, saliva-inducing, palate staining finish unobstructed by the wine’s density of tannin. This should be worth watching and enjoying for a decade, and makes a lovely example of terroir in action as well, since it’s impossible not to make the connection between “Boudots” on the map and the sense in which this Pinot tastes more like one from Vosne than from Nuits-St.-Georges, whereas no such resemblance characteristically applies to the Meo Nuits-St.-Georges from Les Murgers or Perrieres. Jean-Nicolas Meo emphasized the contrast between the low pHs of his 2008s (typical, of course, for this vintage in general) and the high pHs of 2007, which ironically – since the latter were given a higher dosage of sulfur as a precaution against undesirable bacteriological activity – led, he reported, to 2007s that showed a harder side initially than many of the corresponding 2008s. Given the high acids of 2008, says Meo, he preferred to let the fruit hang longer – even despite some shriveling – so that few of the musts were chaptalized and most were 13% or higher in natural alcohol. Typical for this address, the wines display admirable, even unusually strong sweetness of fruit, but in 2008 accompanied by prominent tannins and notes of new wood. Meo compares his 2008s with 2001 and 1996, opining that his wines from those two vintages have for the most part – in contrast with many 1993s – evolved nicely and without exhibiting excessive stiffness or hardness. I caught some 2008s in bottle and others from tank just before bottling, and the several 2007s I tasted alongside showed well, although Meo – in contrast with most growers – thinks his 2008 fruit was superior even in sheer ripeness. (Negociant wines – some from parcels the Meos in fact farm – are noted as “Frere et Soeur.”) Importer: Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA; tel. (510) 524-1524. Also a Jean-Marie de Champs Selection (various importers), French fax 011 33 3 80 22 58 25

Medium red. Sweet red fruits and smoky oak on the rather subdued nose. Then creamy in the mouth, with fruit-driven flavors of cherry, raspberry and redcurrant. A distinctly generous style of 2008 with a sexy, sappy, liqueur-like aspect. The juicy finish boasts lovely aromatic persistence.