2007 Musigny

Sweet, lightly-cooked dark cherry, rhubarb, resin, and vanilla on the nose of the Prieur 2007 Musigny subsequently fan out to saturate the palate, with overt notes of wood thankfully sublimated thanks to the strength of the inherent character of this Pinot’s raw materials. There is juicy, faintly tart persistence – along with hints of chalk and peat – and an overall sense of energy that call to mind 2008 (as a vintage, not especially the 2008 rendition of this particular wine!) and that – along with this wine’s seamless texture – convince me that here is a 2007 worth following for at least 6-8 years. Martin Prieur, oenologist Nadine Gublin, and their team hung tight in the 2008 vintage and ended up harvesting very ripe-tasting Pinots, at the price of yields dramatically reduced by the necessary selection (to the extent hail and green harvest had not already cut them back). As a group, these 2008s tended toward a not entirely felicitous alliance of tannic abrasion and toasty, smoky, ultimately slightly palate-drying new wood, although many of the wines showed more harmoniously when I re-tasted them in April than they had the month prior, and I have accordingly favored my later impressions in the notes that follow. It may well be true by some measure – as Gublin opined – that the 2008s here are more consistently ripe than were the 2006s, but for now I find more depth, harmony, and charm in the latter. Their 2007s – which the domaine began picking already on August 30 – are not currently displaying much of the charm they showed very early on, and while the estate’s staff hope is that this will be regained (and certainly the wines have “structure” in the sense of tannin), I continue to be skeptical in general about deferring those pleasures that this vintage offers. In many vineyards, incidentally, 2008 represented the third consecutive vintage in which Prieur had harvested scarcely more than 20 hectoliters per hectare. Importer: Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York, NY; tel. (212) 355-0700

Good bright, dark red. Tangy, perfumed aromas of raspberry, crushed rock and smoke. Smoky and silky-sweet but quite backward; comes off as thick yet refined, with great charm. The longest of these 2007s, finishing with lovely energy and lift and a real whiplash of flavor-not to mention greater sweetness than the Echezeaux.

(just racked) Medium red. Rich but ethereal aromas of red fruits, violet, spices, smoke and earth. Sweet and supple in the mouth, with lovely floral lift to frame and extend the fruit. A very young wine that finishes with lovely lingering perfume. Not a particularly gripping Musigny but already very expressive.