2008 Domaine Pousse d'Or Corton-Bressandes Grand Cru

The Pousse d’Or 2008 Corton Bressandes displays deep, roasted meaty richness – very domesticated and clean rather than gamey – allied to dark cherry and plum tinged with their pits and crushed stone. Landanger opines that his Bressandes is more struck by their very recent bottling than are his three (at the time I tasted) already-bottled premier crus, but I found this broadly rich Corton notably fine-grained in tannin and savory. I’m inclined though to take his word for it that there is even more here than currently meets the palate. In any case, I suspect there is 12-15 year potential. Patrick Landanger’s recent vintages seem to reflect increasing confidence (not to mention consistency), displaying a sense of restraint while combining richness and transparency to detail. Between the threat of rot and of roasting, he observes, the 2007s required more rigorous sorting than did the fruit from 2008, with a correspondingly lower crop, but Landanger and his crew did an outstanding job in the face of 2007 adversities as well as in 2008. Importer: Langdon-Shiverick Imports, Cleveland, OH; tel. (216) 861 6800 and a Peter Vezan Selection (various importers), Paris; fax 011 33 1 42 55 42 93