Its dark color and deep, intense aromas of licorice, black raspberry, beet root, and peat, render Chevillons’ 2008 Nuits-St.-Georges Les Bousselots a remarkable contrast with its Chaignots sibling. Sweetly-ripe dark berries, peat bogs, fruit pits, and medicinal herbs inform a palpably-dense, fine-grained palate and in a long, finish emerges a savory salinity that draws saliva and invigorates. This should be worthy of attention for the next 10-12 years.
Bertrand Chevillon reported the typically late, long malos of the 2008 vintage, and the Chevillon crus were not bottled until last spring – subsequent to my tastings of them, which took place in part assembled from tank and in part from representative selections of barrels. Interestingly, Chevillons report a normal crop level, stressing that vigilance and diligence in vine treatments made for a healthy crop. Most of the musts weighed-in between 12.5% and 13% potential alcohol and chaptalization was minimal. Bernard Chevillon compares his family’s 2008 with their 2001 –an underestimation, I suspect – and his 2007s with the less interesting, structured, fresh-fruited, or consistent 2000s, an analogy that strikes me as apt. (The Bourgogne and Les St.-Georges, incidentally, had been committed right down to the bottle chez Chevillon by the time I got ‘round to tasting 2007s, hence the absence of notes on those.)
Importer: Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA; tel. (510) 524-1524