Still in barrel when I tasted it, Croix’s 2007 Beaune Bressandes smells of blackberry, plum, and toasted pecan wreathed in the smoke of black tea and in musky, narcissus-like perfume. With a notable richness; less aggressive acidity or firmness of tannin than its siblings; and a mouth-watering, saline savor, this bids fair – for all of its reportedly lagging evolution – to be the collection’s most generous wine in the end. There are unusual (for a red wine) yet appealingly Chablis-like notes here, ranging from chicken or veal stock through cress and citrus zest, to chalk and salt; and this finishes cleansing, refreshing, and energetically. I can’t wait to see how it will evolve in bottle, expecting it to be worth cellaring for a dozen or more years, but on no account aiming to avoid it young, either. 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