Wood smoke and game on the nose of the Croix 2007 Beaune Bressandes usher in a palate of smoked meat and beef stock along with fresh blackberry and mulberry. This shows its tannins but they fit the wine’s smoky and stick-to-the-gums personality, and its hint of tartness adds invigoration to the finish. As with most 2007s, I recommend not holding this in the expectation of melting tannins, but it should prove interesting and useful at table over at least the next 5-6 years. Young David Croix has just added acreage in Aloxe (including Corton) to his recently-formed domaine (for more, consult my report in issue 186). He certainly has a spacious-enough – not to mention handsome – facility to accommodate much more, but seems intent on remaining in the modest 15-20 acre range, while also keeping very busy in his capacity as cellarmaster at Maison Camille Giroud (for more, consult my reports under that heading). Croix did not begin harvesting 2008s (his first crop grown entirely organically, incidentally) until September 29, continuing for ten days, and taking it on the chin as far as yields were concerned. “Nature dictated a small crop,” he relates, but the absence of warmth or sunshine prompted him to cut it back further. “I finished green-harvesting on a Friday;” he continues, “and on Saturday hail hit” many of his vines in Beaune and Savigny. ‘Then there was the concentration of berries by wind, plus the triage of unhealthy grapes.” With one exception, the 2008s had been bottled for a month when I tasted them in April. A Becky Wasserman Selection, Le Serbet (various importers); fax 011-333-80-24-29-70