2008 Gevrey Chambertin Bel Air
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Tasting notes
The 2008 Gevrey-Chambertin Bel Air bursts onto the palate with an array of dark red fruit, flowers, wild herbs and licorice. There is an element of unrestrained wildness that gives the wine much of its unique personality. Anticipated maturity: 2018-2028. Philippe Pacalet is among the winemakers who compare 2009 to 1959. Pacalet works exclusively with leased vineyards across a number of appellations. Biodynamic farming and non-interventionalist winemaking are the rule. The village level wines were all bottled in December, 2010. I tasted the rest of the 2009s from barrel. I also had a chance to sample a selection of 2008s. Based on the wines I tasted, 2008 looks like a very interesting vintage here as well. Importer: Louis/Dressner Selections, New York, NY; tel. (212) 334 8191
Critic scores
Average Score
Antonio Galloni, Wine Advocate
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
More reviews and scores
Pale red. Crushed raspberry, minerals, smoke and earth on the rather high-pitched nose, with stronger spice and pepper qualities than the 2009 currently displays. Then earthy and soil-driven, with a distinctly saline quality leavening the wine's underlying sweetness. Sappy, saline, calcaire -influenced wine that's cool and rather uncompromising today. More about minerality than volume, and not at all easy an easy style, but finishes long and perfumed. Very young.
Pale red. Perfumed aromas of red fruits and smoked meat; slightly reduced today. Then dense, sweet and animale, with a sexy stem element and energy from calcaire giving a sappy quality to this broad, horizontal wine. There's a peppery, almost syrah-like wildness here that really showcases the cool terroir of this site.