Strongly sweet-smoky notes of machine oil along with ripe cherry, resin, cedar, and chocolate in the nose of Landanger’s 2007 Pommard Jarollieres presage a palate of similar pungency and complexity, with peat and Lapsang tea smokiness allied to deep roasted meatiness. Broad-shouldered yet energetic and resonantly long, this is impressive – not just for its vintage – and should be capable of cellaring well for 7-10 years, though one can savor it with great pleasure already. Patrick Landanger’s recent vintages seem to reflect increasing confidence (not to mention consistency), displaying a sense of restraint while combining richness and transparency to detail. Between the threat of rot and of roasting, he observes, the 2007s required more rigorous sorting than did the fruit from 2008, with a correspondingly lower crop, but Landanger and his crew did an outstanding job in the face of 2007 adversities as well as in 2008. Importer: Langdon-Shiverick Imports, Cleveland, OH; tel. (216) 861 6800 and a Peter Vezan Selection (various importers), Paris; fax 011 33 1 42 55 42 93