2007 Chambolle Musigny Vieilles Vignes

Smoked meat and salt-, kelp-, and iodine-laced maritime mineral overlays to the sweetly ripe berry and pit fruit concentrate of de Vogue’s 2007 Musigny Vieilles Vignes make for a Pinot as intriguing as it is eager to caress and please. Plush, polished, and possessed of formidable sheer sap, it displays an energy and interplay seldom revealed in this vintage. A mineral savor of crustacean shell reduction keeps pace with nearly candied sweetness of berry fruit – and keeps you salivating uncontrollably – all the way to a distant finishing line. 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

Bright, deep red. Sappy, deep nose offers blackberry, raspberry, menthol and powerful minerality for the year, with a medicinal reserve conveying the impression of a hidden dimension. Wonderfully dense, sappy and sweet, with palate-saturating chewy extract and plenty of material in reserve. The medicinal aspect to the wine's powerful fruit and spice flavors suggest it will need a minimum of 12 years in the cellar. Finishes with outstanding breadth and explosive length.

The step up in class is unmistakable with gorgeously complex, even kaleidoscopic and superbly elegant red, black and violet aromas trimmed with a dazzling array of spices, earth and a hint of smoke that adds unmistakable luster to the round, intense, muscular and exceptionally stylish broad-scaled flavors that possess excellent power and a building intensity that develops from the mid-palate to the explosive yet seductive finish. I really like the purity of expression here on the sappy and mineral-infused finish that has a dusty quality from all of the dry extract that coats the firm tannins. This is a big '07 built on a base of firm minerality but it remains impeccably well balanced and should live for decades so patience is definitely a virtue if you are a potential buyer.