Our wine club got together and the theme was red Burgundy 2008 ( Villages and premier cru ) . I thought the wines would be relatively closed and even maybe difficult to assess . I was wrong , the best wines are young but drinking beautifully . Nice sweet tannins , good freshness , sweet , lovely . This was a blind tasting : 4 wines really stood out . Everybody brought a bottle , we did not know from each other what the other brought .
Very " pinot " , fresh , red fruit , a classic . Still young , no extraction what so ever .92+ Morey St.Denis aux Cheseaux , ARLAUD ( a great discovery for me , I did not know this domaine)
Very sweet in the nose , modern style , too much wood slightly dries out the finish . 89… Pommard Chanlins Nicolas ROSSIGNOL
darker color , chewy , really complex , great chewy tannis , a wow wine , 94/100 . Nuits St. Georges les St Georges Robert CHEVILLON
Fresh , rather simple , nice red fruit , is this Villages ? 88/100 Vosne Romanee Chaumes MEO CAMUZET
sweet pinot , you taste the stems , good complexity , very pure . 91/100 Chambolle Musigny Haut Doix LUCIEN LE MOINE
Initially restraint nose , corcked became obvious after a while , shame , Chambolle Musigny (?) , MUGNERET
very complex , very sweet , another wow wine , silky and creamy , I love this style 94/100 . Vosne Romanee aux Reignots COMTE LIGER BELAIR
very sweet , still some sprits ( bubbles ) in the wine , not my cup of tea 86/100 Chambertin Clos de Beze DROUHIN LAROZE
elegant , pure red fruit , some brick , lovely classical pinot 93/100 , Nuits St Georges Pruliers , CHEVILLON
Overall , the group ( 9 tasters ) preferred the same 4 wines : the 2 Chevillons , the Reignot and the MsD from Arlaud . Winner was the St Georges from Chevillon ( 10 points ) , closely followed by the CLB Vosne Romanee aux reignots ( 17 points ) ( a personal favorite , year in , year out ) .
The 2008 premier cru’s are slowly starting to drink well . The best are delicious .
I attended a tasting in December - with several Burgundies 2006 to 2011, including some 2008s, and also with a Chevillon 2008 (Vaucrains).
Honestly, not a single wine except the one 2007 was close to any maturity, at least what I would call so.
Acessable yes to a certain degree, but very primary, the 2008s quite pure and focused, but structured, the 09s (!) and 10s even more so … and “drinking well” … yes, maybe if you like the pure fruit and don´t want to get more depth and complexity.
Yes, the only exception was (not in his tasting, but on another occaison) a Liger-Belair VR Colombiere 2008 which was really delicious … I do think that the wines of Louis-Michel Liger-Belair are simply so well balanced that they are always fine, a 2007 La Romanee last September was otherwordly good (at the domaine).
Was this Mugneret-Gibourg Chambolle Musigny “Feusselottes” ?
Or Mongeard-Mugneret Chambolle Musigny Village ?
We had the Feusselottes in the tasting: very good, but also very youthful … and not really my style.
The 2008s which I have tasted in December were not really heavily closed, not completely tight and ungiving, but on the other hand very primary and absolutely not evolved, quite noticable structured and (at least most) were kind of one-dimensional …
I don´t think they will ever be heavily closed (like some 2005s or 1996s), but need IMHO another 4-6 years for the lower qualities … and 6-12+ years for the best growth.
Yes–it’s nice to know that many are drinkable, but in general I’m not terribly interested in burgundies at this age, much preferring to start at the 10-12 year mark. these days I generally just buy in 2-3 bottle lots, and if I start early, I’ve got nothing left.
I am not going to open my 2008’s yet . They will get better ( more complex ) over time . I would leave them alone till at least 2018 -2020 . But some of them are already delicious now .
The ones I was following (notably Chevillon’s Perrieres) were definitely shutting down from their earlier beauty. Personally I’ve put my remaining bottles away to check in on again in 10 years or so.
One exception here may be F Bertheau’s Chambolle Premier cru. It does have some advanced flavors to it, I really have no idea what the aging curve for this wine will be, but I’m a little uncomfortable with the long term prospects here. It is delicious now, though.
It’s strange, I keep seeing reports like this, but I have opened two bottles now and my experience has been somewhat different. The first was very good, but clearly young with a long way to go, and the second was starting to close down and did not give much pleasure, but seemed texturally intact, firm and ready for some time in the cellar. I went out and bought another half a case at what seemed like low prices for this wine ($60/bottle). I may have to check in on another bottle soon just to confirm my impressions. The regular '08 Chambolle, on the other hand, is much more ready to me at this stage (and is f-ing good).
It is strange. I’ve opened two bottles, and for the first 1-2 hours the wine is tight and youthful. Only with my last bottle opened did I get an impression of a more advanced profile after a couple of hours. I have another from my case on tap sometime soon.