2007 Domaine Jean-Marc Pavelot Savigny-lès-Beaune Aux Guettes 1er Cru

A slightly discordant combination of milkiness and astringency handicaps Pavelot’s 2007 Savigny-les-Beaune Aux Guettes, which features scents and flavors of leather, peat, beef marrow, cooked cherry, and a hint of mocha. This displays ample underlying ripeness and impressive persistence, but I am skeptical whether it can do more to overcome its limitations and I would advocate consumption within the next several 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