Black tea, orange zest, resin, and cherry jam pungently scent the Lecheneaut 2008 Nuits-St.-Georges Les Damodes. Faintly chewy but sweetly-fruited on mid-palate, it comes up a bit awkwardly tannic in finish thanks to the negative synergy of fruit skin and new wood (although the share of the latter is apparently only around one-third). Still, there is a latent sense of energy here as well as a sheer persistence that bode well for at least ten or a dozen years of consideration, though I would want to revisit a bottle to perform a tannin check within the next 3-4. Vincent and Philippe Lecheneaut's 2008s had with three exceptions been assembled when I tasted them late last winter, but their malos had been extremely protracted and bottling was due to be later than usual. The brothers employed their usual contingent of new wood but backed-off somewhat on the inclusion of stems (employed at low level even in the village wines) and on pigeage, professing overall satisfaction with a vintage in which they testified to considerable nail-biting in the race between ripeness and rot, but whose fruit required, they said, less sorting than had that of 2007. I found the results here from 2008 on the whole formidably-concentrated but awkwardly marked by their wood and disappointingly lacking in charm or primary juiciness. The several 2007s I was able to taste point in the direction of more harmony and fun-in-drinking, and the Lecheneauts indicated that on the whole they find their 2007s more sweetly-fruited than their 2006s, which they suggest represents a role-reversal from those collections tasted in barrel. Importer: Robert Kacher Selections, Washington, DC; tel. (202) 832-9083

Black tea, orange zest, resin, and cherry jam pungently scent the Lecheneaut 2008 Nuits-St.-Georges Les Damodes. Faintly chewy but sweetly-fruited on mid-palate, it comes up a bit awkwardly tannic in finish thanks to the negative synergy of fruit skin and new wood (although the share of the latter is apparently only around one-third). Still, there is a latent sense of energy here as well as a sheer persistence that bode well for at least ten or a dozen years of consideration, though I would want to revisit a bottle to perform a tannin check within the next 3-4. Vincent and Philippe Lecheneaut's 2008s had with three exceptions been assembled when I tasted them late last winter, but their malos had been extremely protracted and bottling was due to be later than usual. The brothers employed their usual contingent of new wood but backed-off somewhat on the inclusion of stems (employed at low level even in the village wines) and on pigeage, professing overall satisfaction with a vintage in which they testified to considerable nail-biting in the race between ripeness and rot, but whose fruit required, they said, less sorting than had that of 2007. I found the results here from 2008 on the whole formidably-concentrated but awkwardly marked by their wood and disappointingly lacking in charm or primary juiciness. The several 2007s I was able to taste point in the direction of more harmony and fun-in-drinking, and the Lecheneauts indicated that on the whole they find their 2007s more sweetly-fruited than their 2006s, which they suggest represents a role-reversal from those collections tasted in barrel.Importer: Robert Kacher Selections, Washington, DC; tel. (202) 832-9083