2008 Pommard Les Rugiens

With more grip if less allure than the corresponding Pezerolles, the Voillot 2008 Pommard Rugiens mingles blackberry, black raspberry, Szechuan pepper, tobacco and peat, displaying as well a salted beef stock underlying character. This palpably dense Pommard is nevertheless very fine-grained in texture, even evincing a hint of creaminess. Long and complex, I detect an unobtrusive note of caramelization from new wood in the finish that I did not find elsewhere in this collection, but Charlot assures me this got the same 25% as his other crus, and it’s simply that some crus inherently project – while others mask – this. It will be worth following for 12-15 years. ”The domaines that work seriously and well in their vineyards are the ones who succeeded in 2006, 2007, and 2008,” maintains Jean-Pierre Charlot’s, who claims to have been pleasantly surprised not to have encountered significant problems with mildew, oidium, or botrytis in 2008. His 2007s are unusually successful in the context of that vintage, with which he draws parallels to 2009 in that he thinks later harvest at the expense of freshness and early, weak malo that left wines vulnerable during elevage were significant potential pitfalls. When it comes to difficult conditions and problematic results, he insists, none of the subsequent vintages should be compared with 2004. As usual at this address, Charlot was happy to have obtained potential alcohol levels of 12-12.5% in both 2007 and 2008, which he then lightly boosted. His 2008 collection – in which the Pommards, unusually in my experience at Voillot, outshone the Volnays – was due to have been bottled within 2-3 weeks after I tasted it in March. Importer: Vintage 59, Washington, DC; tel. (202) 966-9218

With more grip if less allure than the corresponding Pezerolles, the Voillot 2008 Pommard Rugiens mingles blackberry, black raspberry, Szechuan pepper, tobacco and peat, displaying as well a salted beef stock underlying character. This palpably dense Pommard is nevertheless very fine-grained in texture, even evincing a hint of creaminess. Long and complex, I detect an unobtrusive note of caramelization from new wood in the finish that I did not find elsewhere in this collection, but Charlot assures me this got the same 25% as his other crus, and it’s simply that some crus inherently project – while others mask – this. It will be worth following for 12-15 years. ||”The domaines that work seriously and well in their vineyards are the ones who succeeded in 2006, 2007, and 2008,” maintains Jean-Pierre Charlot’s, who claims to have been pleasantly surprised not to have encountered significant problems with mildew, oidium, or botrytis in 2008. His 2007s are unusually successful in the context of that vintage, with which he draws parallels to 2009 in that he thinks later harvest at the expense of freshness and early, weak malo that left wines vulnerable during elevage were significant potential pitfalls. When it comes to difficult conditions and problematic results, he insists, none of the subsequent vintages should be compared with 2004. As usual at this address, Charlot was happy to have obtained potential alcohol levels of 12-12.5% in both 2007 and 2008, which he then lightly boosted. His 2008 collection – in which the Pommards, unusually in my experience at Voillot, outshone the Volnays – was due to have been bottled within 2-3 weeks after I tasted it in March. eRobertParker.com.June, 2010