Goisot Bourgogne Cotes d'Auxerre Gondonne

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From deep, southerly-exposed Marne clay and oyster fossil-rich Kimmeridgian limestone slopes planted largely with a selection of vines from Raveneau, the Goisot 2008 Cotes d’Auxerre Gondonne displays a juicy primary fruitiness of pear and yellow plum as well as a scallop-like savory depth to accompany the citric brightness, salinity, and overt chalkiness that it shares with its two single-vineyard siblings. Palpably dense yet refreshing and invigorating, it finishes long on pronounced, almost austere chalk and salt, but also with striking lift. It should prove versatile and fascinating over at least the next half dozen years. The Goisots were recently able to add a new parcel in Gondonne by swapping acreage with a grower for whom the site was too dauntingly steep for him to recoup its laborious cultivation. Extreme millerandage characterized his family’s 2008 crop, explains Guilhem Goisot, and even if one did not know that, it is easy to imagine the concentration of tiny, sparse berries when one tastes the superb collection rendered here this year. Yet even with these low yields, 2008 was not the vintage to threaten too much of a good thing, and the natural sugars sufficed for a collection of Chardonnay weighing in entirely between 12-13% alcohol from ripe, healthy fruit.Thomas Calder Selections (various importers), Paris; fax 011-33-1-46-45-15-29; also imported by Beaune Imports, Berkeley, CA, tel. (510) 559-1040

The Goisot 2007 Cotes d’Auxerre Gondonne (to reiterate what I wrote in issue 179) grows on an unusually dense, south-exposed melange of Marne clay and fossil-rich Kimmeridgian limestone that is planted largely with a selection of vines from Raveneau. Musk, scallop, and otherwise animalistic notes mingle in the nose with sea breezes. The suggestions of scallop and shrimp shell reduction are striking on a dense palate. Piquant toasted nuttiness and salinity both lend considerable invigoration, and an aura of animal as well as mineral mystery accrues to this wine’s long finish. I would anticipate a half dozen or more years of fascination. Guilhem Goisot (whose name has now replaced that of his mother in this estate’s official title) echoed the sentiments of many regional growers that the grapes – while already adequately high in sugar at the end of August – were simply not ripe. But time was on an Auxerrre vintner’s side in 2007, and the Goisots were able to pick selectively, parcel by parcel, for three weeks, as compared with nine days in 2006. Their single-vineyard bottlings came close to 13.5% in natural alcohol, those few lots that approached 14% having been consigned to blends. Sauvignon, with its characteristically southwestern exposures (hail-free this year), was picked last – albeit already mid-September – and adequately ripe.Thomas Calder Selections (various importers), Paris; fax 011-33-1-46-45-15-29

The Goisot 2006 Cotes d’Auxerre Gondonne is grown on an unusually dense, south-exposed melange of Marne clay and fossil-rich Kimmeridgian limestone, planted largely with a Raveneau selection of vines. A silken richness of texture testifies to the continued benefits of a passive stay on the lees after blending, and a palpable sense of chalk as well as lees seems to suffuse this impressive young wine. Orange zest, toasted nuts, and lemon pip accent its plum, cherry, and chicken stock flavors, and inform a dense, structured palate, leading to a long, savory finish, broader and less bright and complex than that of the Biaumont. This received 20% new barrels, whereas the other two Goisot single-vineyard bottlings are vinified entirely in used barrels. The (inaugural) 2002 vintage of Gondonne is drinking wonderfully as well as relatively youthfully today (92, to put a point score on it), but that is a wine from what Goisots don’t hesitate to call their “best vintage of the last 20 years.” I would plan tentatively to drink the 2006 over the next 4-6 years. The so-called “Corps de Garde” bottling of Cotes d’Auxerre will – following decades long practice – be assembled out of selected barrels from each of the Goisots’ three best sites, but that marriage had not been consummated when I last tasted. The Goisots farmed organically before that implied any fashion statement, and have long been the foremost vintners of appellation Saint-Bris (Sauvignon Blanc). Their Chardonnays of Cotes d’Auxerre appellation have been enhanced in recent vintages by the addition of barrel-fermented bottlings from individual sites that offer a level of complexity comparable to top-notch premier cru Chablis.Importer:Thomas Calder Selections (various importers), Paris; fax 011-33-1-46-45-15-29