2008 Gevrey Chambertin Les Corbeaux

The Serafin 2008 Gevrey-Chambertin Les Corbeaux – last tasted assembled in tank – mingles tart cherry, tobacco, cocoa powder, crushed stone, and an ashen note in the nose and on a snappy, well-concentrated, subtly silken palate. It finishes with a slightly austerely mineral undertone as well as persistent tartness, but given the degree of complexity and energy on display here this may well be worth following for the better part of a decade. “In two thousand eight, the grapes had too much acid,” states Christian Serafin, “and in 2009, perhaps too much sugar,” he adds with a smile. Serafin says he had to perform a more rigorous de-leafing, green harvesting and triage in 2008 than in 2007. “It’s an awkward vintage for restaurants,” he points out about 2008, “because most of them sell the wines to be drunk young, and these wines will still not be very approachable at that stage.” Importer: Weygandt-Metzler, Unionville, PA; tel. (610) 486-0800

Good deep red-ruby. Wild aromas of black cherry, leather and game. Sweet and lush but on the soft side, with a distinctly sauvage aspect to the black raspberry and game flavors. A rather gently textured wine with supple, fine tannins; broader than the village example.