2008 Chambertin

There is a tiny amount of Prieur 2008 Chambertin – most of the fruit from this site being bottled as “premier cru” due to its young vines – still in barrel when I tasted. Toast, resin, nutmeg, and caramel from barrel are more prominent in the nose than I would prefer, but on the palate licorice and ripe dark cherry offer convincing sweetness and a surprisingly supple texture and lingering, sappy finish are not interrupted by any even faintly gum-numbing or drying tannin. I don’t sense the advent of any real excitement, but I would not be surprised to see the wine gain in complexity prior to bottling and suspect it will merit cellaring for at least ten or a dozen 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 ruby-red. Ripe, sexy aromas of raspberry, dark cherry, spices, pepper and flowers. Dense, supple and surprisingly pliant for a young Chambertin in 2008. The sappiness of its primary black cherry and spice flavors leaves it quite light on its feet. Finishes firmly tannic, highly aromatic and quite suave, with lovely lingering sweetness for the vintage.