Perfectly reflects my experience last night. I hadn’t had a bottle of 2008 Burgundy in quite some time, but popped a Clos de Tart 2008 last night for a birthday celebration. With 90 minutes decanting it started out quite light and floral with lots of acidity, but the red fruit came more to the front with time in the decanter/glass and it put on weight. Enjoyable on its own, but stunning and gorgeous with dinner.
Two points of context for this vintage.
Many producers had very, very long malolactic fermentations. Many wines were delayed going to market, and you basically had 08 and 09 back to back (some wines arrived 6 months apart). The other issue is that they were cranky when they arrived, and didn’t taste that great until La Paulee. Rich and I had a great time tasting at La Paulee together that year, and the wines were finally settling in.
When I asked a number of producers what they would say to summarize the vintage, and several told me something akin to “It’s a better version of 2001”, including 2 producers noting that it was more phenolicly ripe than 2001.
Yes, the acids are high, but the best wines will have plenty of stuffing to age well. I think age 12 is too soon. For the comment about 96s, I’ve found many have FINALLY turned the corner in the last year. Some wines that I thought were simply gross 10 years ago are turning in to some gorgeous wines.
I do remember tasting the '08s at La Paulee and thought that it was such a pretty vintage. Pretty? Slow to develop with such intrinsic high quality of flavors without leaning toward being either over or under done at all - a classic beauty. Higher quality domaines and vineyards faired better as mentioned above. A magnum last spring and a few bottles of the '08 Vogue Amoureuses says it all to me - closed a bit with lots of crunchy bright fruit underneath - can’t find anything wrong with it. Believe it or not - the '08 Carillon BBM I think is the best they made from the 5 vintages before and after. Ramonet made spectacular '08s from the looks of it. I fell in love with the '08 Dujac wines early on but haven’t sampled any recently. Anywho, a vintage that will challenge our senses for years to come which is a lot of the fun 
.
Great point. Once again, there was an article written somewhere contending that while Malic acidity was high, Total acidity was not for 2008, in general. In fact, 1996 arguably has higher total acidity than 2008. The impression of acidity seems higher with 2008 because the phenolic maturation is less. I am generally happy with 2008s thus far because I paid very little for them in the context of Burgundy over the past 10+ years, including many at a discount, and because I have not built the wines up to be something they will never be.
Had a 2008 Chevillon Roncieres last night that perfectly reflected all the conclusions of this thread. First, as a bunch of people above noted, Chevillon did well in 2008. The wine was good, well balanced and fun to drink. Second, it totally reflected the character of the vintage – lifted, tangy, crisp, acidic, and comparatively red-fruited with a touch of cranberry. There wasn’t much of the sweeter rich dark plummy fruit you can get with Chevillon NSG. But the wine was very good on its own terms, elegant, well structured and well balanced including a solid midpalate. I suspect it will get better with age as it felt like there was still something locked up in it. But it was very nice last night.
I haven’t had one for a couple years, but I’ve really enjoyed a couple btls of Chevillon’s '08 Cailles. Very much as you say–red-fruited, bright, and crunchy–but in a very good way. Not at all shrill.
Thanks for the note, Marcus. I only have a couple of bottles of this, Pruliers and Bousselots from Chevillon in '08, and have been resisting the temptation to check in on one. I’ll wait a few years and crack the Bousselots first.
If they turn into 2001’s, but better, I’ll be happy!
I think this is the key point to understanding why the vintage is heterogenous. The malos were very hard to get finished (one producer I know had 8 grams per liter malic acid in one of their Vosne-Romanée 1er crus). As a result, the wines sat for a long time without sulfur, and producers had to do things such as heat their cellars, inoculate with bacteria, etc etc. Some of those wines ended up getting rather fatigued in the process. I think this was true of some 1996s today. Wines that suffered from issues of this kind combine some rather evolved / rusty / oxidative characteristics on the nose, followed by very tightly wound, acid-driven profiles on the palate.
In white wines, the high malics were also an issue in some cases, and some wines similarly got a bit fatigued. Also, some have a very lactic quality after the malolactic fermentation, which can give the wines a somewhat “cheesy” aromatic top-note for which tasters’ tolerance varies.
The great wines in both colors are terrific, though. I just finished a 2008 Meursault from Coche with Luis Gutierrez, who is visiting me in Beaune, and it’s really beginning to sing!
I found some of the whites to have a bit of an “exotic “ characteristic that I attributed to botrytis.
I recently had the 08 Coche PM Enseigneres that was really in the drinking zone:
9/8/2020 rated 94 points: Popped and poured. Very young and vibrant. Nose shows white flowers, spice and lemon infused minerals. Taut, chalky texture with tension and lots of acid. This is still so young, it needs time to unfurl. BTW my bottle is nothing like Allen Meadows’ review, ours is not even close to advanced, based on the acidity blind I would guess this wine as a 2014!
Yes, there was some botrytis! But I have found the wines to be less marked by it than I had expected overall.
I certainly never had an advance bottle of 2008 Coche myself, the wines are very slow-evolving.
This explains a lot. Fatigued is a good description of the ones that don’t appear to be turning out so well.
Or, why wines possibly anticipated to be at apogee later are drinking so well now. Let us keep maintain the spirit of 2008 as half full.
Had a CD Bourgogne Blanc 2008 this weekend. Without having read your comment, acidity also stood out and made it taste younger than I thought. Color was no longer pale yellow. It was a good bourgogne blanc, but lacked length on the palate.
I have a few 08 in the cellar; enjoyed Lambrays a couple years back and have a bit of bertheau. Much deeper in 07 and 09, tho. Anyone have any other favorites they’ve opened recently?
You and me both!
I would agree that it’s delaying the apogees. If there we a lack of phenolic compounds in the vintage, I would certainly be worried.