2008 Domaine Jean-Marc Pavelot Savigny-lès-Beaune Aux Guettes 1er Cru

The Pavelot 2008 Savigny-les-Beaune Aux Guettes unites saliva-inducing salinity and rich meat stock with bright, juicy berry fruits shadowed by overtones of kirsch and framboise distillates. Yet for all of its vivacity, it feels like satin. Notes of moss, damp bark, iodine, cardamom, and shrimp shell reduction add intrigue. Here is an instance where the alliance of carnal and mineral elements on expects from the best Savigny are met more than halfway by sheer fruit intensity, for a winsome and flattering performance that ought to evolve fascinatingly but remain strong for 12-15 years. The Pavelot 2008s did not even begin their malos until July, and none had been bottled when I visited to taste them late last winter, but I tasted them – with the exception of a Narbantons Pavelots weren’t ready to show me – in final form. Hugues Pavelot insists that he and his father didn’t need to cull more than 5% of the fruit they harvested in either 2008 or 2007, and given the exciting quality of their 2008s, all that remains necessary to verify his claim is to count barrels. Assiduous greening of the rows was especially beneficial in 2008 for controlling water and thus vineyard humidity and rot, Pavelot maintains. Hail in this commune hit both Bourgogne and non-cru Savigny vineyards, but you would never know it to taste the corresponding wines at this address. This estate (like the best wines of Savigny in general) has long represented an under-appreciated source of outstanding value, but never more so than from 2008; and while the several 2007s I tasted pointed to a more pedestrian performance, they nevertheless confirmed Domaine Pavelot’s reliability. (Incidentally, 2008 is the inaugural vintage for an amazing Pavelot Corton-Charlemagne, about which I’ll publish notes on a later occasion.) Becky Wassserman Selections (various importers), Le Serbet, Beaune; fax 011-33-3-80-24-29-70