Smoky black tea, tarragon, and penetrating suggestions of celery root and parsnip on the nose and palate of Lecheneaut's 2008 Morey-St.-Denis mingle with confitured black raspberry and hints of caramel. A bitter-sweet tension here is not entirely resolved, and there is less primary juiciness or charm than in the corresponding Marsannay. Structurally, though, the tannins here are handsomely fine and the finish impressively persistent. I would anticipate a finished wine best revisited in 2011 or 2012 before pronouncing on it additional bottle potential. (Both the corresponding Gevrey and Chambolle were awkwardly sweet-sour; grainy; and unfocused, their components of oak doing neither of them favors, but rather - perhaps with help from low-level stem inclusion - slightly drying their finishes.) Vincent and Philippe Lecheneaut's 2008s had with three exceptions been assembled when I tasted them late last winter, but their malos had been extremely protracted and bottling was due to be later than usual. The brothers employed their usual contingent of new wood but backed-off somewhat on the inclusion of stems (employed at low level even in the village wines) and on pigeage, professing overall satisfaction with a vintage in which they testified to considerable nail-biting in the race between ripeness and rot, but whose fruit required, they said, less sorting than had that of 2007. I found the results here from 2008 on the whole formidably-concentrated but awkwardly marked by their wood and disappointingly lacking in charm or primary juiciness. The several 2007s I was able to taste point in the direction of more harmony and fun-in-drinking, and the Lecheneauts indicated that on the whole they find their 2007s more sweetly-fruited than their 2006s, which they suggest represents a role-reversal from those collections tasted in barrel. Importer: Robert Kacher Selections, Washington, DC; tel. (202) 832-9083

Smoky black tea, tarragon, and penetrating suggestions of celery root and parsnip on the nose and palate of Lecheneaut's 2008 Morey-St.-Denis mingle with confitured black raspberry and hints of caramel. A bitter-sweet tension here is not entirely resolved, and there is less primary juiciness or charm than in the corresponding Marsannay. Structurally, though, the tannins here are handsomely fine and the finish impressively persistent. I would anticipate a finished wine best revisited in 2011 or 2012 before pronouncing on it additional bottle potential. (Both the corresponding Gevrey and Chambolle were awkwardly sweet-sour; grainy; and unfocused, their components of oak doing neither of them favors, but rather - perhaps with help from low-level stem inclusion - slightly drying their finishes.) Vincent and Philippe Lecheneaut's 2008s had with three exceptions been assembled when I tasted them late last winter, but their malos had been extremely protracted and bottling was due to be later than usual. The brothers employed their usual contingent of new wood but backed-off somewhat on the inclusion of stems (employed at low level even in the village wines) and on pigeage, professing overall satisfaction with a vintage in which they testified to considerable nail-biting in the race between ripeness and rot, but whose fruit required, they said, less sorting than had that of 2007. I found the results here from 2008 on the whole formidably-concentrated but awkwardly marked by their wood and disappointingly lacking in charm or primary juiciness. The several 2007s I was able to taste point in the direction of more harmony and fun-in-drinking, and the Lecheneauts indicated that on the whole they find their 2007s more sweetly-fruited than their 2006s, which they suggest represents a role-reversal from those collections tasted in barrel.Importer: Robert Kacher Selections, Washington, DC; tel. (202) 832-9083