Boillot’s old vines 2008 Beaune Epenotes displays bitter- and tart-edged black fruits mingled with hints of meat stock, chalk, cherry pit, and toasted praline. Clean, cool, and lean, it finishes with formidable persistence and mouth-watering sheer refreshment. I expect it may display more definition after bottling; will respond well to a few years in bottle; and should be worth following for at least 4-5. Louis Boillot’s 2008s – all but three recently racked to tank when I tasted them in February, and due to have been bottled between April and June depending in part on the sensory evolution of their prominent acidity – represent one of those vintage collections that reminds one of the virtues of typical wines from two or more decades ago: restrained, a bit youthfully tart and tight, but back by admirable extract and energy, and likely to reward cellaring for at least the better part of a decade. Having described this collection as something of a throwback, I must note that Boillot said by the time he finished picking on October 4 his remaining fruit was already at 13.5% potential alcohol – riper than in 2007 – and only a few 2008 vintage lots in his entire cellar were chaptalized. The vintage reminds him of 1996 in terms of its acidity, but of the long under-rated 1972s overall. “I bottled a lot of magnums in 2008,” Boillot says with a confident twinkle in his eye. Unfortunately, time constraints precluded by tasting the 2007s from this cellar. Importer: Rosenthal Wine Merchant, Pine Plains, NY; tel. (800) 910-1990