2008 Volnay Taillepieds

A strikingly marine and shrimp shell-tinged nose and palate with bright red currant and tart cherry fruit mark the de Montille 2008 Volnay Les Taillepieds, which allies white wine refreshment and minerality to intensely persistent fruit and a sort of turf-meets-surf finish that incorporates metaphorically dark, fungal forest floor shadings. Serving more for head-scratching than head-turning, this intriguing expression of its great site nonetheless incorporates a subtly satiny texture thanks to its ultra-fine tannins, and in the course of the coming 12-15 years one can expect its incipient sensuality to rise to its level of fascinating complexity, and for it to serve adeptly at table. Etienne de Montille related having taken great pains in early September, 2008 to stave-off encroaching rot and promote ripeness, and felt that his rigorous leaf-pulling and crop-thinning – not to mention eventual triage – paid off sufficiently that he could vinify a substantial portion of the 2008 crop in his preferred manner, utilizing a high proportion of stems and whole clusters (100% in the case of this year’s grand crus and top premier crus). Those wines for which a point spread is indicated were all last tasted shortly before their early spring bottling as finished assemblages in tank – whence they had been racked at the end of 2009 because de Montille did not think their fruit density or lees quality would have supported longer barrel-elevage. (Despite my longstanding predilection for de Montille and his wines, I regret to report that time and circumstance conspired to keep me from tasting his 2007s.) Various importers, including Beaune Imports, Berkeley, CA; tel. (510) 559 1040; also, a Thomas Calder Selection, Paris; fax 011-33-1-46-45-15-29