2008 Morey St Denis Les Chaffots

With its cheek-pinching and measurably highest acidity of the collection the Ligniers’ 2008 Morey-St.-Denis Les Chaffots also reflects its site’s high elevation and proximity to Clos St.-Denis in the dusting of white pepper and crushed stone that seems to overlay its bright, tart red fruits. Bitter fruit pit notes add counterpoint on a sleek, texturally-refined palate. This is quite unevolved but finishes with impressive verve and irresistibly lip-smacking refreshment. It should offer at least 6-8 years of distinctly 2008 Pinot pleasure. Hubert and Laurent Lignier – for more on whose recent evolution as a domaine and as negociants, consult my report in issue 186 – had one barrel from 2008 still stuck in malo last February, and several others had only finished by Christmas. No wines had been bottled (though they were assembled) when I last tasted them in February; indeed even the 2007s here were not bottled until May and June of 2009. Natural alcohol in the 2008 collection peaked at 13% in the Charmes and Combottes (due to extreme millerandage there, notes Laurent Lignier) and all of the wines were very lightly-chaptalized. Sorting was much less arduous for them in 2008 than 2007, he adds. As is evident from my rating, the array of wines from lesser locations or that incorporate purchased fruit have not (in the years since the splitting-up of control over this estate) nearly approached the consistently outstanding quality that the three or four top Lignier bottlings continue to exhibit. Importer: Rosenthal Wine Merchant, Pine Plains, NY; tel. (800) 910-1990