2005 Domaine Jean-Marc Pavelot Savigny-lès-Beaune La Dominode 1er Cru

The anticipated high point of this and any Pavelot collection, their 2005 Savigny-les-Beaune La Dominode gives an intense but somber performance this year, leading with blackberry, plum paste, game, and nut oil aromas, filling the mouth with medicinal bitter herbs and black fruit tinged with iodine and wet stone, and gripping – along similarly medicinal and mineral lines – with downright severe concentration. This will need some months to sort itself out and then a good decade in the cellar to approach its full potential, which will almost certainly prove more formidable than that of its stable mates. (Although wines of Savigny lack the cachet of those from Volnay, Pommard or Beaune, never underestimate either their seriousness nor their proclivity for long life!) A Becky Wassserman Selection (various importers), Le Serbet, Beaune; fax 011-33-3-80-24-29-70.

Deep, bright ruby-red. Dark berries, dark chocolate, wild herbs and peppery spices on the nose. Sweet, juicy and penetrating; a step up in intensity and verve. This, too, conveys a density from dry extract. Has a very firm structure of tannins and acids but avoids coming off as hard. Very long on the aftertaste. Will be a vin de garde "Juicier than the '99, and with a lower yield," notes Pavelot. My range may prove to be conservative.