2008 Chambolle Musigny Les Feusselottes

(negociant wine, from low-vigor young vines that typically produce smaller grapes)) Very good deep red. Sexy raspberry and mineral aromas. Juicy, fresh and penetrating, with piquant notes of flowers and orange peel along with mint. Nicely sappy but less open and sweet than the Cras. Not especially high in acidity but the rather dominant tannins seem a bit tough in the early going. Meo notes that the tannins from this low-nitrogen vineyard need a couple years to integrate and are giving this wine a deceptive greenness today.

While a negociant bottling, the Meo 2008 Chambolle-Musigny Les Feusselottes Frere et Soeur comes from vineyards that the estate essentially manages and its crew harvests. Cooked ginger and tonka bean, accent black raspberry and cherry preserves on the nose, which are then enlivened by a soy-like saline thread that runs right through the finish. That thread is especially welcome because, here too as in so many Meo-Camuzet wines, there is a significant oak presence in the form of caramel, resin, and extraneous tannin that requires leavening! I suspect this richly-endowed Pinot will be worth following for 6-8 years but would not do so if I really didn’t like the flavors of toasted oak. ||Jean-Nicolas Meo emphasized the contrast between the low pHs of his 2008s (typical, of course, for this vintage in general) and the high pHs of 2007, which ironically – since the latter were given a higher dosage of sulfur as a precaution against undesirable bacteriological activity – led, he reported, to 2007s that showed a harder side initially than many of the corresponding 2008s. Given the high acids of 2008, says Meo, he preferred to let the fruit hang longer – even despite some shriveling – so that few of the musts were chaptalized and most were 13% or higher in natural alcohol. Typical for this address, the wines display admirable, even unusually strong sweetness of fruit, but in 2008 accompanied by prominent tannins and notes of new wood. Meo compares his 2008s with 2001 and 1996, opining that his wines from those two vintages have for the most part – in contrast with many 1993s – evolved nicely and without exhibiting excessive stiffness or hardness. I caught some 2008s in bottle and others from tank just before bottling, and the several 2007s I tasted alongside showed well, although Meo – in contrast with most growers – thinks his 2008 fruit was superior even in sheer ripeness. (Negociant wines – some from parcels the Meos in fact farm – are noted as “Frere et Soeur.”) Wine Advocate.June, 2010