Rossignol executed an experimental lot of 2008 Volnay Caillerets retaining 100% stems and whole clusters, but then blended it into the majority lot that had been destemmed. The resulting wine, tasted from tank, would seem to derive from its vendange entier share the bittersweet floral overtones that accompany its rich plum, dark cherry, burley tobacco, brown spices, and nut oils. This is seamlessly smooth and rich on the palate, its long finish possessed of lip smacking saline and umami savor, the site-typical suggestions of chalk and stone being restrained and not remotely conducing to austerity. More approachable than its appellation or vintage would lead one to anticipate, this complex beauty is nonetheless likely to be worth following for 12-15 years.
Having convinced Nicolas Rossignol to let me taste in the 2008 vintage the entirety of his collection – expanded by the “re-union” of various family members’ parcels large and small to encompass, from 2009, 32 appellations! – I ran into a snag. In his frigid cellar – so cold yet in March that we met to taste at his house in Beaune – many wines (two Pernands; three lots of Pommard; Volnay Fremiets ?) were still stuck undergoing (some barely beginning) malo-lactic conversion! Some growers would opine that outstanding results cannot possibly issue from such freakishly retarded young wines, but my experience with what is clearly the most exciting collection I have yet experienced from this young vigneron suggests otherwise. There was a continuum on display among the wines I tasted, from ones that had only just finished malo and were still loaded with CO2, to more finished wines, and they were virtually all excellent. Rossignol sees aspects of each of the three vintages that preceded it in 2008, as well as what he calls “the finesse of 2002.” Potential alcohols were in the 12.5 to low 13s and a significant share of the wines was lightly chaptalized, though not for the sake of alcoholic body per se. For all of the hail in his general sector this July, only Rossignol’s Santenay “and a touch of the Caillerets” were hit. He claims that in 2008 he did not have to exercise rigorous sorting in the cellar but only on the vines, and he persisted in the inclusion of stems and whole clusters (“vendange entier”) in certain cuvees, an inclusion I have tried to mentioned where applicable in my tasting notes. By contrast, his 2007s – which he calls “wines for drinking, not tasting” – were all de-stemmed. (For further details on Rossignol and his approach to Pinot, see my reports in issues 171 and 176.)
A Becky Wasserman Selection, Le Serbet (various importers); fax 011-333-80-24-29-70
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