Pavelots’ 2008 Savigny-les-Beaune Serpentieres features aromas of cherry and plum with intimations of their pits, as well as a maritime combination of saline and alkaline scents. It fills the mouth with tart dark cherry, purple plum and the fruit pit piquancy and marine minerality that were adumbrated in the nose, all making for lovely counterpoint on a palate of satiny texture. This is almost compulsively saliva- and next sip-inducing. Hints of fennel take the lead in adding an attractive herbal dimension to the wine’s fascinating, lingering finish. I expect it to excel for at least a dozen years. The Pavelot 2008s did not even begin their malos until July, and none had been bottled when I visited to taste them late last winter, but I tasted them – with the exception of a Narbantons Pavelots weren’t ready to show me – in final form. Hugues Pavelot insists that he and his father didn’t need to cull more than 5% of the fruit they harvested in either 2008 or 2007, and given the exciting quality of their 2008s, all that remains necessary to verify his claim is to count barrels. Assiduous greening of the rows was especially beneficial in 2008 for controlling water and thus vineyard humidity and rot, Pavelot maintains. Hail in this commune hit both Bourgogne and non-cru Savigny vineyards, but you would never know it to taste the corresponding wines at this address. This estate (like the best wines of Savigny in general) has long represented an under-appreciated source of outstanding value, but never more so than from 2008; and while the several 2007s I tasted pointed to a more pedestrian performance, they nevertheless confirmed Domaine Pavelot’s reliability. (Incidentally, 2008 is the inaugural vintage for an amazing Pavelot Corton-Charlemagne, about which I’ll publish notes on a later occasion.) Becky Wassserman Selections (various importers), Le Serbet, Beaune; fax 011-33-3-80-24-29-70