The 2007 Saint-Aubin smells and tastes of Normandy cider augmented by brown spices, toasted nuts, lemon, and chalk. As with a number of Jadot wines of this vintage, the overtly chalky, stony elements gain in prominence as the wine crosses the palate, lending a touch of austerity to the finish, rather than the juicy refreshment that seemed to be promised on the nose and attack. Here is a rare instance where lanolin and resin from the wine’s share of new barrels is distinctly – and, as yet, detachedly – present. Still one cannot fault this on sheer length, and its potential merits re-assessing in another year. Lardiere insists it was “special” in cask. Jadot is one of those addresses where I confess to having feared that the combination of this vintage’s marked impression of acidity and relative leanness with Jacques Lardiere’s love of precision and merely selective use of malo-lactic fermentation might result in a dearth of sensual appeal. And he is the first to admit that a relatively high proportion of malic acidity was present in 2007, along with a danger of vegetal notes. But Lardiere took most of his 2007s all the way through malo, and my fears were at worst marginally realized. An overarching caveat is that these wines received higher dosages of sulphur (25 versus 15 grams) at bottling than those of other recent vintages, and will – Lardiere opines – take longer to shake off a certain pungency or hardening, but it did not find that alarming. As usual, I could not take time to taste all of Jadot’s many bottlings, which are less numerous this year, in any case, than in 2006. Incidentally, the first vintages of Domaine Ferret Pouilly-Fuisse under Jadot’s ownership and Lardiere’s direction – on which I shall report at a later time – are tremendously successful, preserving and even elevating critical elements of the personality that has long wines from that estate so memorable. Importer: Kobrand, Inc., New York, NY; tel.(212) 490 9300