2008 Chambolle Musigny

Roumier's 2008 Chambolle-Musigny - tasted soon after its January bottling - is scented with fresh cherry, its pits, and red currant in a manner that presages its brightness and piquancy on the palate. Forest floor and clean meaty elements as well as hints of cinnamon and nutmeg emerge as this opens to the air, all nicely complimenting the wine's fresh fruit edge, as does its incipiently silken texture. This finishes long and vibrant, with alluring spice and pure fruit. I would plan to enjoy it over the next half dozen years. Christophe Roumier says his 2008 fruit demanded rigorous sorting to remove under-ripe bunches (whereas in 2007 this was necessary to remove rot), but he liked what was left enough to indulge in a significant proportion (most frequently 50%) of stems and whole clusters for the fermentations. "With such tiny, perfect berries, it was almost a shame to de-stem any of them," he remarks. Late to go through malo, like so many others of that year, these 2008s certainly preserve the vintage's primary virtues of vivacity and interactive complexity. Not more than 50% new wood was employed, to guard against loss of the vintage's vividly bright fruit in a vintage Roumier felt was unusually sensitive in that regard. Some of the 2008s remind him of 1980 or, more precisely, of what the 1980s could have become given today's standards of viticulture and selection. Roumier has a higher opinion of 2007 and their age-worthiness than do I, considering them superior to 2006 or 2008 - and given the way the two that I tasted from bottle showed, that opinion is not inexplicable. (I tasted the other Roumier 2007s too early in their evolution to render proper verdicts, although they were certainly effusively generous if not yet complex even pre-malo.) Roumier employed comparable percentages of stems and whole clusters, and indulged in more frequent pigeage than in 2008, comparing his resulting 2007s with 1985s. Importer: Diageo Chateau and Estate Wines Company, New York, NY; tel. (212) 419-1400

Bright red. Very pure, sappy aromas of raspberry and minerals. The palate offers excellent purity and juicy cut to the primary red berry and mineral flavors. This very sharply focused village wine should be superb. Roumier had already blended five lots at the time of my visit.