Raphet's 2008 Morey-St.-Denis Les Millandes is strikingly saline and nutty, with its bitterness reinforced by slightly grainy tannins. That noted, this displays abundant, brown spice-tinged ripe dark cherry and purple plum fruit and finishes with welcome sheer juiciness and invigorating salinity, if not terribly much complexity. I'd plan to enjoy this over the next 4-5 years. Gerard Raphet's 2008s finished malo by the end of the following January, which is amazingly early for this vintage, and not necessarily advantageous. (He suspects the environment of his new facility has something to do with that rapidity.) He bottled them last January. As a group these wines are not particularly dark or youthful in color, nor do they for the most part exhibit the sort of brightness that I associate with their vintage. That said, they are generous and charming, often with attractively-integrated hints of caramelization. Yields were way down in both 2007 and 2008, notes Raphet, though one can hardly attribute any special degree of vinous concentration to this fact. In common with me, Raphet finds his 2007s - which to my surprise held their own vis-a-vis 2008 - ideal for drinking young.Peter Vezan Selections (various importers), Paris; fax 011 33 1 42 55 42 93

Raphet's 2007 Morey-St.-Denis Les Millandes offers a saline, alkaline, even slightly acrid overlay to ripe plum and cherry aromas. Richer in texture than the corresponding 2008, it evinces considerable high-toned, kirsch and framboise inner-mouth perfume which will challenge some tasters- tolerance for volatile acidity. Peat, crushed stone, and taste-able counterparts to the aforementioned salinity and alkalinity lace the ripe finishing fruit of this Pinot that should prove interesting over at least the next 3-4 years. An oddly drying tendency clipped the fruit and sapped the pleasure from Raphet's 2007 Gevrey Combettes. Gerard Raphet's 2008s finished malo by the end of the following January, which is amazingly early for this vintage, and not necessarily advantageous. (He suspects the environment of his new facility has something to do with that rapidity.) He bottled them last January. As a group these wines are not particularly dark or youthful in color, nor do they for the most part exhibit the sort of brightness that I associate with their vintage. That said, they are generous and charming, often with attractively-integrated hints of caramelization. Yields were way down in both 2007 and 2008, notes Raphet, though one can hardly attribute any special degree of vinous concentration to this fact. In common with me, Raphet finds his 2007s - which to my surprise held their own vis-a-vis 2008 - ideal for drinking young.Peter Vezan Selections (various importers), Paris; fax 011 33 1 42 55 42 93

Deeper and healthier in color than the corresponding village wine, Raphet's 2006 Morey-St.-Denis Les Millandes smells of ripe plum and cassis; shows a bit of resin, caramel, and toasted praline from its (50%) new wood – an unusual phenomenon at this address; and finishes with an active interplay of pungently herbal, sweetly dark-fruited and wood notes. (Had there been more than two barrels' worth of wine, Raphet would have chosen a lower percentage of new barrels!) This well-concentrated cru should particularly reward service over the coming half dozen years. The Raphet wines have always been marked by a wide divergence of quality and a reflection of conditions very much as nature presented them. The results in 2006 are relatively lightweight, with for the most part only bottlings from the characteristically top sites and vines of the domaine really asserting strong personalities (and a presumably hail-tainted and rather 1983-like village Gevrey being less than recommendable). Gerard Raphet says he picked consciously on the early side, and then quickly, boosting the alcohol levels on most wines slightly from their potentials in the low 12s. (For further information about Raphet and his sites, readers are urged to consult my report in issue 171.) Peter Vezan Selection (various importers), Paris; fax 011 33 1 42 55 42 93