2008 Morey St Denis

The Clark 2008 Morey St.-Denis Les Porroux – a single barrel from the site below the Clos de la Bussieres, identified on the label beginning this year – features bright sour cherry but with less of the bitterness of cherry pit than in Clark’s other 2008s. Nips of bittersweet citrus oil and horseradish add to the pungency and invigoration generated by this wine’s prominent acidity, and it finishes quite long and lip-smacking. I’d look for this to perform well for 4-6 years, though obviously no track record is really in place for it. David Clark – for more about whose background and vineyard holdings consult my reports in issues 170 and 186 – is slowly enlarging his diminutive domaine as well as constantly innovating, one recent example being the deceptively simply yet utterly unique and ingenious bottling apparatus that he (a former Formula One racing engineer) and his father designed and built to debut with the 2008 vintage (and which once can view in operation on his website). “My 2008s are on the bracing side,” admits Clark, “but I think in general that the balance of a Pinot tends to become softer, and I’m afraid that the 2009s might taste balanced from cask and then too soft after bottling!” Importer: Weygandt-Metzler, Unionville, PA; tel. (610) 486-0800