2008 Domaine Perrot-Minot Domaine Gevrey-Chambertin Les Perrières Vieilles Vignes 1er Cru

Lightly-cooked dark cherry, resin, violet perfume, and well-hung game scent Perrot-Minot’s 2008 Gevrey-Chambertin Les Perrieres Vieilles Vignes, which I was surprised to find him serving after wines with the pedigree and track record of his Beaux-Monts and Champ-Perdrix. Cherry pit bitterness and leather mingle with dark berries, game, and a garrigue-like suggestion of resinous scrub. There is a rather Rhone-like aura about this as well as – to my nose and palate – an intimation of brett. The tannins generate a faintly dry spot in a finish that is, however, undeniably persistent, complex, and strikingly animal. I would cellar this cautiously, and would not attempt a long-term prognosis without re-visiting the wine in 2-3 years. I also allow for this wine having been in bottle only three weeks when I tasted it. Christophe Perrot-Minot pursued to extremes in 2008 the fanatic selectivity on which he prides himself, though he would have been happy had that not been necessary. He claims this triage was almost entirely for the removal of under-ripe, not of botrytis-infected, berries. (And yields from these – as the labels remind us – universally old vines are always extremely low even before fruit hits the estate’s two sorting tables.) The concentrated, lavishly ripe but densely-structured style associated with this domaine is tempered by the relatively low alcohol (wines finished – after light chaptalization – in the upper 12s or low 13s) and efficacious acidity of the 2008 vintage, as well as by a relatively gentle extraction that he reports was forced on him by fruit whose virtues could easily have been spoiled by pigeage. Given the way these wines turned out, I, for one, am very glad no attempt was made to punch the musts into further extractive submission! Perrot-Minot opines that many 2008s were permanently stunted by excess sulfuring – which exacerbated the lateness of malo-lactic transformation – and by too little time between the end of malo and bottling, ending up “square” (he used the English word) and “lacking in fat. There was also a danger,” he acknowledged, “that one could end up with wines too concentrated, or that lack purity of aroma and don’t express their terroir.” And in another response to the inherent intensity but also limitations of the fruit, new wood this year was held to a maximum of 40%. Most of the 2008s had been bottled recently when I tasted them in April, but some as early as January. (For details on many of the Perrot-Minot vineyard sites and old vines, consult my reports in issues 170 and 186. I did not have time, unfortunately, to taste any of the 2007s from this estate except a very early stage.) Importer: Martine’s Wines, Novato, CA; tel. (415) 883-0400