2008 Clos de la Roche

Red raspberry and red currant combine with blond tobacco and beef marrow and high-toned herbs on the nose and palate of Lignier’s 2008 Clos De La Roche, which exhibits even more polish and finer tannins to the corresponding Clos St.-Denis. Pure red berry fruit, savory meatiness, and fascinating variations on salt, crushed stone, peat and humus inform an impressively penetrating and persistent finish. This should prove handsome for a decade or more. ”I love the purity of fruit in the 2008s, which is for me is a big part of the definition of Pinot Noir,” declares Virgile Lignier, after admitting that he shared the doubts of many growers about these wines in their earliest stages, doubts that lead him to de-acidify a few small lots. Natural alcohol levels here in 2008 hovered around 13% although Lignier reports having chaptalized around half a degree for the sake of extending fermentations. He was very cautious in fermentative extraction – “mostly we just took a little juice and poured it back over the cap,” he relates – and in nearly all instances retained around on-third of the stems. Lignier also racked his young 2008s earlier and then two and three times because of what he reported were their stubborn CO2 retention and reductive tendencies, an approach diametrically opposed to that of other growers, but the results here this vintage serve as yet another demonstration that many roads can lead to success. I tasted all but the Bourgogne assembled from tank. “You could do a bit more extraction,” says Lignier of 2007, from which time unfortunately precluded my sampling more than a few examples. (For some details on the sites Lignier farms, consult in particular my notes on his 2006s in issue 186.) Becky Wasserman Selection (various importers), Le Serbet; fax 011-333-80-24-29-70

Good full, bright red. Very fresh, oaky aromas of minerals, mint and graphite. Began with less depth of flavor than the Clos Saint-Denis, with slightly tart acidity keeping the wine's fruit under wraps, but grew silkier with aeration, showing attractive rose petal and spice notes and more volume on the back half. Difficult to assess today, as the tannins are a bit youthfully disjointed. Will it be as suave as the Clos Saint-Denis?

Sweet red fruit, very pure on the nose. Richer and fuller than most of his reds in this vintage. A firm oaky tannin structure filled out by good fruit, though it is still quite linear and not sure it will fill out further. More finesse than concentration. (JH)