The Guillemot 2008 Savigny-les-Beaune Les Jarrons – from old vines, like their Narbantons – smells of cherry and rhubarb (so familiar now from this vintage) with sweetness as well as tart acids and fruit skin chew lending invigoration to a fine-grained, palpably dense, if lean, palate. Peppery pungency and notes of chalk enhance this wine’s sense of grip and energy. You can expect at least 10-12 years of enjoyment. A very young Vincent Guillemot – later joined by his father, Pierre – proudly took the lead in showing me his family wines, which I have known for years but until this April had not tasted in situ. These continue to represent excellent values and are good keepers. Guillemots bottled their 2008s in January which is a month later than usual, due to late malos and residual CO2. It would be most interesting to see these get longer elevage, and it appears that might lie in the future. As Vincent points out – and bearing in mind that the wines here have been good for much longer than that – the past decade has in several respects found them returning to methods that prevailed in his grandfather’s time. I did not have a chance to taste Guillemot’s 2007s as I used it instead to gain a foretaste of 2009 which will feature a new appellation, and which is promising indeed. Importer: Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA; tel. (510) 524-1524