2007 Chambolle-Musigny Les Combottes 1er Cru

Lousy weather during the veraison caused the color change of the grapes to last into the beginning of September, said Roumier, "but then 18 days of a cold and dry north wind saved the harvest. We had a combination of real ripening and dehydration." There was less rot in 2008 than in 2007 but very irregular ripening, even within some clusters, which necessitated a severe sorting of the fruit, he added. The wines have accurate flavors, good minerality and crisp fruit, said Roumier, but they taste thinner than the 2007s, whose opulence is currently hiding their underlying acidity and whose darker, riper fruit flavors "obliterate their minerality." At the end of our tasting Roumier told me he believes other winemakers made 2008s as good as his, "but richer." I think he was being overly modest, as his wines are among the standouts of the vintage.

In November, Roumier told me he prefers his 2007s to his 2006s owing to their "great mouth feel and density," but he admitted that most of his neighbors preferred 2006. In fact, pHs in 2007 are higher than those of 2006 and the wines are wonderfully fleshy and rich. They showed very well in November, even if Roumier felt that most of them were reduced or fermentative when I tasted them-or both. He started picking on September 3 and had 25% less volume than the previous year. Roumier thought the '06s were a bit thin in barrel and did not deserve a late bottling. He kept the wines on their lees as long as possible, and only racked for the bottling. Today, he notes, the wines are gaining density in the bottle and are showing more tannins than they did in barrel. "In fact, without those minerally tannins the wines might come across as a bit flabby," he concluded.