Palate-staining plum and cherry dusted with cardamom and cinnamon in Chauvenet’s 2008 Nuits-St.-Georges Les Charmottes marry the cut and vivacity typical of its vintage with considerable low-toned richness and a satiny texture. This finishes with invigorating and lip-smacking spice and salinity as well as exuberant primary fruit juiciness. I expect it will merit at least a decade of attention. Hubert Chauvenet testified to normal malos (i.e. finishing in spring – the wines’ first spring that is!). He points to the bright red of his successful 2008s as witness to the health of the corresponding fruit, whereas the 2007s had by the same stage already taken on a hint of garnet, and he tends to agree with me that many 2007s – in which, naturally he did not include his own! – were at their most exuberant and expressive while still in cask. Vigilant canopy-management and aggressive fruit-dropping have long been constants here. Chauvenet’s cellar has now been arranged to permit delivery of his fruit to the fermentation vats via conveyor and to eliminate pumping, and the refinement of tannins and clarity of fruit I witnessed in the best of these 2008s – especially considering that their author still favors high levels of new wood – can almost surely be traced to those developments. And speaking of clarity, Chauvenet pointed out that several of his 2008s are on the edge of what he deems acceptable turbidity and unfortunately resisted naturally clarifying to any greater degree. But after due consideration, he decided to bottle, as usual, without filtration, a wise move I would guess, given how well these 2008s have turned out.Imported by Robert Kacher Selections, Washington, DC; tel. (202) 832 9083

Plum paste, plum pit, and medicinal herbals inform the Chauvenet-Chopin 2007 Nuits-St.-Georges Les Charmottes, which displays admirable primary juiciness for its vintage, even if its depth of fruit is not matched by comparable complexity. The regimen of new wood here was the same as for the 2008 but is less noticeable. There will be a lot of pleasure to derive from this for at least the next 3-5 years. Hubert Chauvenet testified to normal malos (i.e. finishing in spring – the wines’ first spring that is!). He points to the bright red of his successful 2008s as witness to the health of the corresponding fruit, whereas the 2007s had by the same stage already taken on a hint of garnet, and he tends to agree with me that many 2007s – in which, naturally he did not include his own! – were at their most exuberant and expressive while still in cask. Vigilant canopy-management and aggressive fruit-dropping have long been constants here. Chauvenet’s cellar has now been arranged to permit delivery of his fruit to the fermentation vats via conveyor and to eliminate pumping, and the refinement of tannins and clarity of fruit I witnessed in the best of these 2008s – especially considering that their author still favors high levels of new wood – can almost surely be traced to those developments. And speaking of clarity, Chauvenet pointed out that several of his 2008s are on the edge of what he deems acceptable turbidity and unfortunately resisted naturally clarifying to any greater degree. But after due consideration, he decided to bottle, as usual, without filtration, a wise move I would guess, given how well these 2008s have turned out.Imported by Robert Kacher Selections, Washington, DC; tel. (202) 832 9083

Chauvenet's 2006 Nuits-St.-Georges Les Charmottes - from a non-cru site below Bousselots - represented a leap in color and flavor intensity over his Bourgogne and Cote de Nuits-Villages bottlings this vintage, brimming with ripe plum and blackberry; bracingly fresh and tart; and with wet stone underlying character serving to highlight by contrast the fruit. It displays admirable density and energy, if on a lean frame, and I would anticipate its being worth following for 4-6 years. Hubert Chauvenet professed having been more active than normal in 2006 with punch-downs and pump-overs, in order to compensate for paucity of material, and a certain undertone of bitterness in a few of his lighter-weight 2006s may be explicable on that account.Imported by Robert Kacher Selections, Washington, DC; tel. (202) 832 9083