With a lovely nose of cassis, black raspberry, black tea, and brown spices that carries onto a broadly rich palate, Rouget’s 2007 Vosne-Romanee illustrates the black fruit dominance and greater sense of ripeness that he thinks sums up this vintage’s difference from 2008. There is almost a honeyed sense of unctuosity in the finish, but at the same time one becomes aware of lurking tannins. Call me stubborn in my inability to see beyond the short-term for so many wines of this vintage, but I would recommend enjoying this over the next several years for the sweetness it shows in its youth, and I am more than willing to risk being pleasantly surprised if bottles eventually prove me wrong by shedding tannin and gaining complexity. I tasted Emmanuel Rouget’s 2008s from barrel in April and he was planning to bottle them within a month. According to one of Rouget’s favorite descriptors, the vintage was “tres particulaire,” not to mention challenging. “I harvested at an average of 12%” potential alcohol, he reports, “and chaptalized less than a degree. That sufficed. It was more important to harvest while there was still good weather and besides, it was already cold. There was a lot of acidity, but that conveys a superb equilibrium and level of freshness. The wines really exhibit the plenitude of Pinot.” Rouget rejects what he acknowledges is a widespread comparison of 2008 with 1996, suggesting that the latter “was more marked by sunshine, and resulted in less-noticeable acidity.” (As noted in the introduction to this report, he compares 2008 with 1986.) Importer: Martine’s Wines, Novato, CA; tel. (415) 883-0400