2008 Chambolle Musigny Les Amoureuses

The de Vogue 2008 Chambolle-Musigny Les Amoureuses is alluringly scented with iris, red raspberry, citrus oils, and illusive intimations of crystalline, crushed stone minerality. The richness of fruit here does indeed support Millet’s description of “syrup,” but at the same time, one could hardly do better than accept his characterization of this particular wine as displaying “the synergy between natural minerality and the freshness of the 2008 vintage.” There is a subtlety and transparency of fruit to mineral and floral nuances here reminiscent of water color, a metaphor of mine with which Millet is willing to go along on several levels, including its support of his notion that the fruit character of the vintage is fragile, but that once captured in bottle in timely fashion will not easily fade. I would expect great things from this deeply complex yet ethereal, persistently shimmering beauty over the next 12-15 years. Francois Millet – always keen to pinpoint the expression of fruit he finds in each vintage – characterizes that of 2008 as “syrup-like,” and of 2007 as “candied.” I am skeptical that these metaphors can be generalized, but under no circumstances should “syrup-like” be taken as an attempt to deny the brightness or transparency displayed by so many of the best 2008s, including these. “To have been picked late” – in this instance, starting September 27 – “to have been picked cold, and to have fermented very slowly to created the largest amount of glycerol to combine with the freshness of the vintage,” opines Millet, constitutes a significant part of the 2008s’ secret, seduction, even mystery. “Late malo” – here completed in August – he adds, “was also good, so that the vintage could have a true childhood, and slowly, surely build itself. If we had had a southern wind when the weather changed, maybe we would have lost that identity of 2008. But by there being a northern wind, the evolution was continued” i.e. in a constant, cool trajectory. Not to short-change it, the 2007 vintage collection here is one of those few capable of standing direct comparison to its immediate successor – or indeed to nearly any other vintage from this address. Imported by Dreyfus Ashby, New York, NY; tel. (212) 818-0770; also a Peter Vezan Selection (various importers), Paris; fax 011 33 1 42 55 42 93