2008 Chambertin Grand Cru

Christophe Perrot-Minot told me he had to throw out 25% to 30% of his pink, underripe grapes in 2008 in order to vinify fruit with good phenolic maturity. There wasn't too much rot, although there was more of a rot risk in his older vines, whose fruit achieved higher ripeness levels. Grape sugars were typically between 12.3% and 12.8% and most of the wines were chaptalized no more than half a degree. "It was impossible to do pigeages in 2008 because we didn't have the raw materials to support it," he told me. "It would have dried the wines." Perrot-Minot's 2008s look to be some of the most impressive wines of this tricky vintage, no doubt due in large part to the seriousness of the selection. The malos were finished by July but no wines had yet been racked in early November. His 2007 have turned out to be charming and attractive wines, more elegant and refined in style than his more solid, tannic 2006s.