2008 Savennieres Roche Aux Moines Clos de la Bergerie

Joly’s 2008 Savennieres - Roche-aux-Moines Clos de la Bergerie smells intriguingly of hazelnut, litchi, iris, snuffed candle wick, and lees. Its initial palate impression is both oily and palpably dense but also preserves a sense of succulent if at the same time severe pit and citrus fruit concentration, with emphasis on the pits and rinds. But here – going beyond its effect in the Clos Sacres bottling of the vintage – heat (from what is labeled as 15.5% alcohol) becomes downright fiery and the fruit and mineral elements must struggle to express themselves in the finish. I’d be concerned that the terroir is trapped in a burning building. This gets high marks for intrigue and intensity, but will never be able to overcome its alcoholism. I was unfortunately not able to take the time this year to visit Nicolas Joly, a man best known to many younger wine lovers in his role as spokesperson for biodynamic viticulture and advocate of far-reaching metaphysical explanations for vinous phenomena, but who in person reveals a charm absent from his wines, as well as occasional flashes of iconoclasm. At their best, these wines are idiosyncratic reflections of their grower, of nature’s whims, and perhaps sometimes of sheer contingency; intense and intriguing if often not much fun to drink. Joly – with whom I have often corresponded on wide-ranging matters vinous, and for whom fun is not the point – might well agree with my description. But he would feel it misses the most essential point: that his wines consistently reflect their terroirs. On that count, I retain a measure of skepticism, and not only because Coulee de Serrant itself, being a monopole, does not permit of comparison with other renditions; but because it is often precisely what I call idiosyncrasies that most strike one in comparison with other renditions of Savennieres or Roche aux Moines. And if one believes in the importance of terroir, then surely also in its implicit pecking order, but frankly I have often found Joly’s ostensibly least wine – the Clos Sacres of simple Savennieres appellation – his most expressive and best-balanced, with high alcohol being the most frequent culprit when one ostensibly “trades up.” (This caused problems with some of the 2004s and 2005s I reviewed in issue 172 – and which confessed to 14-14.5% on their labels – but is much more problematic in the current crop, which fess up to 15-15.5%.) The behavior of recent releases in the open glass and bottle also makes me skeptical of their aging potential. All of those tasted held decently for the first day (more than I could say of their vintage 2005 counterparts), but on the second, all but the 2008 Coulee de Serrant had begun to further darken and lose flavor interest not to mention freshness. In the notes that follow I have made no attempt, finding it impossible, to individually assess the potential longevity of these wines. Importer: Domaine Select, New York, NY; tel. (212) 279-0799