The 2010 Charmes-Chambertin is sublime. It reveals lovely fleshiness and depth. Sweet red berries, flowers and spices flesh out in the glass. The Charmes impresses for its impeccable textural finesse, fabulous balance and overall sense of harmony. The Le Moine Charmes is equal parts true Charmes and Mayozeres. Anticipated maturity: 2020-2030. It is always fascinating to settle in for a tasting with proprietor Mounir Saouma. With the exception of Jadot, I can-t think of a single maison that draws across such a broad range of top vineyards. When taken together, the whites and reds provide insight to the performance of dozens of the finest sites in the region. Saouma is not much for comparisons when discussing 2010, saying quite simply, -2010 is 2010.- The vintage was not without some disappointments. Because of the miniscule yields, there is no 2010 Romanee St. Vivant or Richebourg. As always, these are some of the most unmanipulated wines being made in Burgundy. When I tasted the 2010s in November 2011, the wines had never been sulphured or racked. Saouma had just finished bottling his 2009s (a vintage many bottled on the early side) in October 2011!Importers: Vintus LLC, Pleasantville, NY; tel. (914) 769-3000, Atherton Imports, Menlo Park, CA; tel. (650) 328-6639

Le Moine's two barrels of 2008 Charmes-Chambertin (one from Mazoyeres) offer sweet aromas of cherry jam and pistachio extract wreathed in hyacinth, rose, and hibiscus, which follow on a seamlessly rich, subtly creamy palate, deep in the senses of plushness and fruit intensity as well as of layered complexity. This pure-fruited beauty certainly lives up to its name, and should perform well for 15-20 years, though it would be a shame not to relish some of it much younger. In 2008, maintained Mounir Saouma, growers had to decide between two fundamentally different approaches: -Am I going to give in to fear because there is some rot, press gently; not macerate a lot; not keep a lot of lees; work with clean juice and plenty of sulfur? Or am I going to take another direction to counterbalance high acidity by macerating long, pressing deeply, putting a lot of lees in the wines, and aging a long time on those lees- and in his case without racking or adding sulfur. The barrels were topped not with wine but with stored lees, and Saouma gave me a chance to taste the richly-textured, fragrant quality of lees still retained after 18 months. Despite the fact that malo-lactic conversion is nearly always late in this cellar, the 2008s finished more or less on schedule, which here means by late summer or September. Alcohol levels, incidentally, generally finished just a bit over 13% in both vintages. The first, highly selective rackings of 2008s were due to take place soon after I tasted in March, with bottling anticipated between late spring and September of this year. -They-re still slippery fish,- noted Saouma's partner, (and spouse) Rotem Brakir, this March of their evolving 2008s, and added: -We like to see the wines tasting every day well for two months before we bottle.- I last tasted most of the 2007s solely in June, 2009, and most of those prior to bottling. Of this vintage, Saouma, maintains it was important to pick Pinots in the first week of September and -not to exaggerate; to accept that, yes, there was a little bit of rot, and a portion of the fruit that was not entirely ripe; but to press deeply, to delay malo, and to keep a lot of lees in the barrel. Our 2007s were going through malo,- he notes, -when many growers were bottling theirs.- Talk may be cheap when it comes to the notion of wine -making itself,- acknowledges Rotem Brakir, but adds -2007 was a real lesson for us. Sometimes you have to sit and be quiet, while the wine educates you.- The results are unquestionably remarkable for their vintage. (The Le Moine wines - for more about whose sources and upbringing consult my reports in issue 171 - are rendered in such small quantities that I have generally indicated in my notes the number of barrels produced - each equivalent to approximately 25 cases. In each case where there I did not taste the bottled wine and are multiple barrels, I tasted a pre-assemblage.) The exceptional quality and promise of the Le Moine wines from two such challenging vintages is certainly a tribute to the unusual vinificatory approach chosen by Saouma and Brakir; to the caliber of the growers whose wines they select; and to at least some degree, I suspect, reflects the control they are able to exercise in collaboration with those growers, although Saouma down-plays such considerations, insisting that -if you find a grower you really like for a particular appellation, then you respect that grower's choices.-Importer: Vintus, Pleasantville, NY; tel. (919) 769-3000