From the Giroud family domaine, Camille Giroud’s 2008 Beaune Les Cras smells intriguingly of diverse red fruits; alkaline, saline sea breeze; game, fur and leather. Tart rhubarb encourages the bright, juicy invigoration that is delivered along with slightly funky, reductive, sweaty and gamy notes. A stony undertow lends a slightly austere sense of the site living up to its name. The exotic aspects of this wine, taken with a faint shriveled berry cast to the finish and a not especially deep or healthy color suggest that some residual botrytis is playing the wild card. This is more intriguing than it is delicious, and I would watch it carefully if I chose to sit on some for more than 2-3 years. David Croix’s 2008 Camille Giroud collection was picked late; slow to evolve; and for the most part had not been bottled when I tasted in April. Although I missed out on a couple of wines in this year’s collection, the line-up from Camille Giroud was also smaller than in previous years. (I have not tasted the 2007s here. For details about the recent revival of Camille Giroud and about David Croix’s approach, readers are referred to reports in issues 160 and 170 respectively; and for reports on Croix’s own domaine, see under Domaine des Croix.) A Becky Wasserman Selection, Le Serbet (various importers); fax 011-333-80-24-29-70