What a pretty nose on the Gevrey-Chambertin – well-defined with perfumed fresh strawberries and red currants with an underlying mineralite. Is this really just Villages! The palate is medium-bodied with a light peppery opening, fleshy and quite spicy red fruit and an exuberant finish more like a 2009 Gevrey. This is a well-crafted Gevry. Tasted May 2013.

Incorporating fruit from parcels high up in Brochon but also from near the border with Morey, Boillot's 2008 Gevrey-Chambertin mingles salt; shrimp shell reduction; and the cyanic piquancy of cherry pits with its juicy, fresh cherry fruit. A pleasing counterpoint of textural plushness with brightness leads into a long, lip-smacking, subtly salt- and iodine-tinged finish. This elegant Pinot seems ready and waiting, though it might well tighten after bottling. I would expect it to be worth revisiting over at least a 4-5 year period. Pierre Boillot - Lucien's grandson, for details on whose history, properties, and connection with other Boillots, see issues and 186 and 170 - noted that his Cote de Beaune fruit required more rigorous sorting in 2008 than did that from the Cote de Nuits, and the former resulted in several wines of relatively aggressive astringency. I tasted his 2008s prior to their March and April bottlings, and (except where noted) assembled from tank. (Unfortunately, shortage of time kept me from tasting Boillot's 2007s.)Importer: Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA; tel. (510) 524-1524

From a dozen tiny parcels – including upper-elevation acreage from Brochon – Boillot's 2006 Gevrey-Chambertin was bottled late and I last tasted it assembled in tank. Scents of ripe dark cherry and incense lead to a palate of rich berry fruit, with undertones of roasted meats. This boasts considerable stuffing for its classification and vintage, as well as refined tannins, and its bittersweet finish is sustained if not especially complex, with a saline, savory streak helping to entice the next sip. I suspect it will be best enjoyed over the next 2-3 years. Pierre Boillot (grandson of Lucien) vinified and marketed together until 2003 with his slightly older brother Louis (who now shares facilities with his wife Ghislaine Barthod, and most of the same appellations as Pierre, and on whose outstanding wines I reported in issue 170 and again in this issue). They then separated their shares of inheritance, which include equally prime acreage in both Cotes, thanks to Lucien having long ago left his family's Volnay estate (now Domaine Henri Boillot) to stake his own claim in Gevrey. My first visit to taste here convinced me that this address and Pierre Boillot's talent should be known to all Burgundy lovers. Pierre Boillot lays great store by lees enrichment, never bottling before the second spring, and then without filtration.Importer: Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA; tel. (510) 524-1524

Incorporating 50- to 60-year-old vines from diverse parcels both north and south of the village (even though he eschews the label notation “vieilles vignes”), Boillot’s 2005 Gevrey-Chambertin smells and tastes of slightly tart but ripe blackberry and cassis, conveys charred, roasted meat and salty mineral impressions on the palate, and finishes with impressive length of sweet fruit lightly but not objectionably tinged with smoke, caramel and coconut wood inflections. Also recommended: 2005 Fixin (unknown; 85-87). Having moved from Volnay to a newly-expanded facility he shares with his wife, Ghislaine Barthod, Louis Boillot fields a large and geographically diverse range of generally impressive, pure-fruited Pinots. (In rating them, I have left some leeway to allow for my previous unfamiliarity with Louis Boillot’s wines.)Importer: Rosenthal Wine Merchant, Pine Plains, NY; tel. (800) 910-1990.