Fresh plum and plum distillate tinged with ginger and white pepper pungently scent the Pavelot 2008 Savigny-les-Beaune Gravains, and these are allied on a bright, lean, yet phenolically-refined palate with stimulating salinity. There is a levity here that compliments the wine’s ethereally distilled fruit aspect and its almost citrus-like brightness. This finishes with spicy, saline, tartly red-fruited, and subtly chalky persistence. Opinions are bound to divide over this instance of 2008 displaying white wine-like virtues. I suspect that it will remain vigorous for more than a decade.
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
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