The Chateau de Chorey 2008 Beaune Les Cras Vieilles Vignes smells of Keemun tea, burley tobacco, cherry, and red raspberry, which feature in a palate display of slightly gum-numbing tanninity and (over-14%) alcohol, underlain by rather austere chalk and stone notes typical for the site. This impressively intense, incipiently complex, and clearly unevolved Pinot should be fascinating to follow over the next 6 or more years, but watchfully. Benoit Germain did not begin picking his 2008s until September 29, “by which time,” he claims, “every other grower in Chorey was finished,” though he adds with a wry smile that “l(fā)ast year 2009 I was ahead of everybody.” With a little help from space heaters, all of the 2008 whites here finished their malos by early March (of 2009 that is), but timing for the reds varied widely, and in any case, Germain favors late-bottling, so that most of them were still in barrel when I tasted here in March. That the principal Germain 2007s displayed such vivacity and could hold their own against his 2008 collection surprised me, and since wines from this estate often require considerable cellaring to show their true meddle, these 2007s represent an excellent and immediately accessible introduction to the Chateau de Chorey.A Becky Wassserman Selection (various importers), Le Serbet, Beaune; fax 011-33-3-80-24-29-70 Also imported by Simon N Cellars, Charlottesville, VA; tel. (434) 977-4476 and a Scott Levy Selection, Norcross, GA; tel. (770) 730-0361

From the sixty year old vines rooted I chalk and flint that in my experience here (since 1985) nearly always give the most memorable but also the most austere Germain wine of a vintage, their 2006 Beaune Les Cras Vieilles Vignes displays formidable concentration and grip. Ripe black cherry and purple plum with their pits; roasted meats; peat, chalk and stone; bittersweet herbal extractions and nippy spices are the building blocks of this unusually structured 2006. There is also a juiciness of rare meat and fresh berries and a resinous sappiness to compliment the austerity of this wine's adamant mineral expressions. The feel is firmer and the chalkiness far more pronounced than with any of the other Chateau de Chorey 2006s, but at the same time this is purest in fruit. I would plan on following this for at least a decade. Benoit Germain (for more about whose direction of his family's estate, consult my report in issue 171) managed to capture energy, minerality, and elegance in his white 2006s (from Pernand, Meursault, and Beaune), and most of his reds follow suit – thanks in no small part, surely, to rigorous fruit-sorting – making an excellent case for themselves, while not pretending to challenge their superb 2005 predecessors for structure or aging potential. The vintage reminded him of 2001, Germain says, when he panicked as the first Pinot fruit came in to realize how much potential for hardness and bitterness there was that had to be managed by means of an adjusted vinificatory regimen (shorter, warmer, fewer punchdowns). The 2001s were not as inherently tannic, he hastens to add, but on the other hand there was rot to deal with in 2006.A Becky Wassserman Selection (various importers), Le Serbet, Beaune; fax 011-33-3-80-24-29-70 Also imported by Simon N Cellars, Charlottesville, VA; tel. (434) 977-4476 and a Scott Levy Selection, Norcross, GA; tel. (770) 730-0361