Bize-Leroy’s 2008 Savigny-Les-Beaune Les Narbantons is one in a long line of amazing demonstrations that this site can deliver profound complexity and pleasure, but I doubt that there has been – and certainly I haven’t tasted – a more impressive instance, or indeed any more impressive young Savigny. Site-typical carnal elements in the nose are especially clean rather than gamy, and allied to suggestions of red fruit distillates, ocean spray, and forest floor. An infectiously mouthwatering savor of tiny red fruits (lingonberry, red currant, fraise du bois); red filet-mignon juices; rich beef marrow; mineral salts; leather; and brown spices floods and invigorates the texturally seamless, incipiently satiny palate in a show of palpable density and gripping persistence that somehow also leaves room for tenderness. Tea like smokiness and tannin that suffuse this Savigny similarly do not preclude a vintage-typical sense of vivacity. A vibratory, kaleidoscopic finish caps this thrilling effort that ought to be worth following for a quarter century.
Lalou Bize-Leroy reports average 2008 Pinot Noir yields of 13 hectoliters per hectare, almost absurdly tiny even by her singular standards. Malos were a bit later than usual but were finished by summer, and the wines bottled – as usual – in December. Yet – also as usual – if their development was thereby in any way stunted, you certainly won’t detect it in the bottle today! The best of these display a sense of transparency; levity; and – even when rich and head-spinningly complex – a sheer sense of refreshment and invigoration that I have seldom encountered in other great wines from these sister estates. (Please note that my account of the complete 2007 red collection at Leroy was published in issue #189.)
Importer: Martine’s Wines. Novato, CA; tel. (415) 883-040
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