2007 Morey St Denis Les Millandes

Raphet's 2007 Morey-St.-Denis Les Millandes offers a saline, alkaline, even slightly acrid overlay to ripe plum and cherry aromas. Richer in texture than the corresponding 2008, it evinces considerable high-toned, kirsch and framboise inner-mouth perfume which will challenge some tasters- tolerance for volatile acidity. Peat, crushed stone, and taste-able counterparts to the aforementioned salinity and alkalinity lace the ripe finishing fruit of this Pinot that should prove interesting over at least the next 3-4 years. An oddly drying tendency clipped the fruit and sapped the pleasure from Raphet's 2007 Gevrey Combettes. Gerard Raphet's 2008s finished malo by the end of the following January, which is amazingly early for this vintage, and not necessarily advantageous. (He suspects the environment of his new facility has something to do with that rapidity.) He bottled them last January. As a group these wines are not particularly dark or youthful in color, nor do they for the most part exhibit the sort of brightness that I associate with their vintage. That said, they are generous and charming, often with attractively-integrated hints of caramelization. Yields were way down in both 2007 and 2008, notes Raphet, though one can hardly attribute any special degree of vinous concentration to this fact. In common with me, Raphet finds his 2007s - which to my surprise held their own vis-a-vis 2008 - ideal for drinking young. Peter Vezan Selections (various importers), Paris; fax 011 33 1 42 55 42 93