Lignier’s one barrel of 2008 Clos St.-Denis – fermented 50% vendange entier – formidably displays the density, tensile structure, and stony minerality that can accrue to this great site, with concentrated beef stock, smoky black tea, and soy more than fruit aromas or flavors constituting the wine’s richness. Dark berries become more evident as this opens up, but even then by way of their tart skin edginess, mingled with bitter notes of rosemary and fruit pit. There is an admirably polished feel, but abundant, fine tannins lurk just below the surface. This gripping expression of Clos St.-Denis is likely to perform most impressively at 6-12 years of age, but if sweetness of fruit or plushness of texture are what turn you on about Pinot, look elsewhere! Neither is the sort of charm and elegance this vineyard can display (and often did in 2007) likely to ever surface from a bottle of this meat- and mineral-dominated 2008. ”I love the purity of fruit in the 2008s, which is for me is a big part of the definition of Pinot Noir,” declares Virgile Lignier, after admitting that he shared the doubts of many growers about these wines in their earliest stages, doubts that lead him to de-acidify a few small lots. Natural alcohol levels here in 2008 hovered around 13% although Lignier reports having chaptalized around half a degree for the sake of extending fermentations. He was very cautious in fermentative extraction – “mostly we just took a little juice and poured it back over the cap,” he relates – and in nearly all instances retained around on-third of the stems. Lignier also racked his young 2008s earlier and then two and three times because of what he reported were their stubborn CO2 retention and reductive tendencies, an approach diametrically opposed to that of other growers, but the results here this vintage serve as yet another demonstration that many roads can lead to success. I tasted all but the Bourgogne assembled from tank. “You could do a bit more extraction,” says Lignier of 2007, from which time unfortunately precluded my sampling more than a few examples. (For some details on the sites Lignier farms, consult in particular my notes on his 2006s in issue 186.) Becky Wasserman Selection (various importers), Le Serbet; fax 011-333-80-24-29-70