2008 Gevrey-Chambertin Village

Also recommended: 2008 Cote de Nuits-Villages (86).

The soil was always humid during the 2008 growing season, said Sylvie Esmonin, and the grapes swelled during the cold, rainy August. (She even had some large grape clusters in her Clos Saint-Jacques vines even though she dropped a lot of fruit at the beginning of September, but this less-ripe material went into her Bourgogne.) Because her vineyards hadn't really suffered from any maladies in 2008 she didn't feel the need to pull leaves on the north side of the vines. "This was my regret in 2008, because I would have gotten more maturity," she said. Rot was a minor issue, but Esmonin told me she tossed out about 12% of her pink and large grapes. "My fruit in 2008 was fragile and not sweet enough. Even the peaches and the apricots in the south of France didn't have enough flavor in 2008." Esmonin told me that it was necessary to vinify with at least 30% whole clusters to make wines with terroir character, but the wines did not have the tannic structure to support as high a percentage of stems as she has used in recent years. The 2008s, she told me, are more vertical and longer than the 2007s; the earlier vintage is more horizontal and mouthfilling. I tasted the 2008s from tank. (Louis/Dressner Selections, New York, NY) Also recommended: Cote de Nuits-Villages (85).