2008 Vosne Romanee Les Chaumes

Like most of the premier crus in this collection, 50% new wood was employed here and it’s a tribute to the wine, Lachaux, or tonnelier Stephane Chassin – perhaps to all collectively – that there isn’t any overt woodiness in evidence. The deeper, more clay-rich soils in this site vis-a-vis most of his others is, opines Lachaux’s, the reason for a slightly more rustic tanninity in his 2008 Vosne Romanee Les Chaumes. Ripe purple plum and blackberry are allied to alkaline and overtly chalky elements and shadowed by their distilled counterparts. Despite this wine’s prominent tannins, an unexpected sweetness and mouth-watering savor wells-up in its seriously sustained finish, convincing me that this will be worth cellaring for a few years and is likely to deliver fascination up to at least age 8. That said, one will need to bear in mind the tannins and overt minerality in pairing it, and those not enamored of Pinot’s dark side or of unapologetic tannins will be less impressed than am I. I tasted Pascal Lachaux’s 2008s soon after their late-January bottling, and a few of them may have been suffering from trauma they thereby sustained, but on the whole this was an impressive if darkly-hued and unapologetically firmly-structured collection. Lachaux reports that his malos were “on time, normal,” and adds “the truth about 2008 and why the malos were so often retarded is that people sulfured the fruit too heavily at the advice of their enologues.” Even at bottling, Lachaux reports that he was sparing with sulfur and expected to take advantage of the high levels of residual CO2 in his 2008s. He says he allowed temperatures to rise during the fermentation as a means of extracting more flavor without having to actively work the cap and in consequence risk pulling out green flavors or hard tannins. This approach may explain the particularly low-toned personality of this 2008 collection, which certainly didn’t leave me wishing that the wines had sustained additional pigeage! If the number of magnums I saw is any indication, Lachaux seriously intends on putting to the test his confidence in this vintage’s aging potential. Yet he is also very keen on his 2007s, those of which I tasted from bottle were indeed impressive, though I seem even in this instance to be missing what those growers most enamored of their 2007s profess to perceive. Importer: Rosenthal Wine Merchant, Pine Plains, NY; tel. (800) 910-1990

(50% new oak) Good full red. Reticent but pure and bright aromas of black cherry, raspberry, flowers and leather. Tightly wound and not especially pliant now, with a slight rusticity to its medicinal dark fruit flavors. Finishes rather strict, with building dusty tannins. But this has good stuffing to support a positive evolution in bottle.

Bright crimson. Really quite intense red cherry fruit. Bright and fresh and pure with dryness on the finish but not drying or tough. Real energy and long-term ageability – which is rare among the 2008s. (JR)