2008 Latricieres Chambertin

Licorice, jasmine, peat, charred red meat, and fresh dark berries scent and saturate the firm but expansive palate of Bize-Leroy’s 2008 Latricieres Chambertin. Much of the same “blood of the stones” sense of mineral saturation emerges here as on the corresponding 2007, but this wine’s dark family of flavors is allied to almost blazing brightness of fresh fruit acidity in a manner that – along with its underlying firmness – calls to mind 2005. What’s more, for all of this wine’s full-court-press of flavor, dark depth, and bedrock-firm structure, it reveals an uncanny sense of sheer levity that presages future elegance. My palate just can’t shake loose its array of flavors. I’m guessing that 25 years from now this great wine and its 2005 counterpart will still seem like remarkable twins separated at birth. (Please don’t imagine them in a ring together, though, duking it out to determine a winner.) Lalou Bize-Leroy reports average 2008 Pinot Noir yields of 13 hectoliters per hectare, almost absurdly tiny even by her singular standards. Malos were a bit later than usual but were finished by summer, and the wines bottled – as usual – in December. Yet – also as usual – if their development was thereby in any way stunted, you certainly won’t detect it in the bottle today! The best of these display a sense of transparency; levity; and – even when rich and head-spinningly complex – a sheer sense of refreshment and invigoration that I have seldom encountered in other great wines from these sister estates. (Please note that my account of the complete 2007 red collection at Leroy was published in issue #189.) Importer: Martine’s Wines. Novato, CA; tel. (415) 883-040