Boillot’s 2008 Savigny Les Beaune Les Lavieres smells of game, cherry, and brown spices, with an intimation of rhubarb already in the nose that bears bright fruit on the palate, yet without engendering unduly sharp edges. Leathery notes join the red fruits, game, and lip-smacking mineral salts in a brash and invigorating finish. There is more than enough primary juiciness here to help the wine over its firm and slightly granular tannins. Whether bottles should be held in hopes that these will soften is tough to call, but I would be inclined to anticipate 6-8 useful years. In 2008, Henri Boillot both expanded his domaine and became ambitious qua negociant with Pinot. In the latter capacity, he looks for contracts where he can exercise control over the farming, so that, for example, all of the 2008s – he reports – were cropped at less than 20 hectoliters per hectare and picked very late. Unorthodoxly (for Burgundy, at least) Boillot pressed many of his reds early to let them complete fermentation in barrel. His malos were late but not dramatically so, finishing in August, and most of the wines were bottled in February, a few earlier. (I tasted several 2007 reds from Boillot, but too early-on to adequately assess, and I have not had time to revisit that collection.)Various importers