FEATURES ARCHIVE

Wines are listed in the order in which they will be auctioned on Sunday, 16 November 2008

RED WINES

Beaune 1er Cru Cuvée Dames Hospitalières
Garnet purple of medium depth, with open, fresh, Pinot character, very fragrant. This cuvée always has mild acidity levels, and 2008 is no exception. Fruitiness builds on the middle-palate, which is harmonious and fleshy, the finish being fine and fragrant, with nothing in excess.

Pommard 1er Cru Cuvée Dames de la Charité
Rich, medium-deep purple, and showing roasted, well-ripened, complex fruitiness on the nose. The palate has impressive structure, the fruitiness is dense and mouth-coating, the finish magnificent. This is a beautiful, great wine, a superb success this vintage. (One barrel of this will be the Pièce des Présidents in 2008, sold for other, specified charities).

Volnay 1er Cru Cuvée Général Muteau
Colour is an appetising purple-red of medium depth, the nose being floral and ripe, with bright fragrance. A medium-bodied, creamily-textured wine, showing flesh, fine tannins and a balanced finish.

Beaune 1er Cru Cuvée Guigone de Salins
Red-purple of medium depth, the nose being ripely fragrant, complex and rich. This is superbly structured, with fleshy middle-palate, mouth-coating, well-ripened, ample tannins, and rich length. As last year, this is undoubtedly one of the top Beaunes in 2008, with good potential to age.

Clos de la Roche Grand Cru Cuvée Cyrot-Chaudron
There are two Cuvée names for one identical Clos de la Roche wine. Just 3 barrels of Cuvée Cyrot-Chaudron were made in 2008, and 2 of Cuvée Georges Kritter. They were made in one vat, then given the names of two different, generous recent benefactors, who each donated funds to buy the vineyards. Rich, deep purple colour. Freshly ripe, open aromas, showing some whole bunch fermentation character (50 per cent was not de-stemmed). Palate is rich and vinous, lively and concentrated, with splendid length. Tannins are silky; this will be sumptuous, and vies with Mazis-Chambertin to be the greatest 2008 red wine in the cellar.

Corton Grand Cru Cuvée Charlotte Dumay
Purple-garnet of medium depth, the nose being fresh Pinot with spiciness, open and clean. Full-bodied attack, with brightly fruity follow-through, slightly earthy tannins which are mouth-coating, then a balanced, harmonious aftertaste.

Pommard-Epenots 1er Cru Cuvée Dom Goblet
Medium, red-purple, with clean, open fragrancy. Palate is beautifully proportioned, rich and fine. There are elegant, balancing tannins, intense fruitiness and a lively, fresh aftertaste. This will be a seductive, lovely wine for medium-term drinking.

Beaune 1er Cru Cuvée Rousseau-Deslandes
Red-purple of medium depth, with intense, grape-skin and red fruits aromas. Sugars have been slow to finish on this wine, so it is early days to get a handle on the finished product. Structure is sound, fruitiness intense, tannins and acidity seem in balance. I believe this will make harmonious, fine drinking, for medium term ageing.

Volnay 1er Cru Cuvée Blondeau
Colour is medium, purple-red, the nose very fruity. Picked very ripe, this has a shriveled-grapes, slightly botrytis-affected character and earthiness, no doubt relating to the hail-storm, end July. Careful sorting has done wonders for these grapes, and the wine now just needs experienced tending to bring it to fine maturity. Origins of this Cuvée are largely Champans and Taillepieds, along with Ronceret and Mitans - many of Volnay’s greatest First Growths.

Beaune - Grèves 1er Cru Cuvée Pierre Floquet
Colour is red-purple of medium depth, the nose being ripe, juicy, clean and fresh. This is a beautiful, elegant wine, with silkily-textured, rich middle, good length and fine tannins – the best Beaune Floquet since 2005, I believe.

Mazis-Chambertin Grand Cru Cuvée Madeleine Collignon
Impressively deep, rich purple, with black fruits aromas, very splendid. 40 per cent of this harvest went into the vats as whole bunches, and the slow, resulting fermentation has brought about a succulent extraction of ripe, mouth-coating, savoury tannins. The middle-palate is rich, fleshy and elegant. Where in 2007 I thought Clos de la Roche was the greatest red in the cellar, this year, Mazis seems to have the edge.

Corton-Clos du Roi Grand Cru Cuvée Baronne du Baÿ
For the second vintage, a cuvée has been made exclusively from Corton-Clos du Roi (from vines which previously went into Dr Peste (mainly) and Charlotte Dumay. Rich purple of medium depth, with the nose being fragrant and piercingly fruity. This is richly structured, with creamy texture, and a powerful, long finish. Ageing in fine-grained Tronçais forest barrels, this is a luscious wine of perfect balance, showing great potential complexity.

WHITE WINES

Meursault-Genevrières Cuvée Philippe le Bon
Picked when super ripe, this is a wine for all lovers of Meursault at its most luscious and sumptuous. Naturally plentiful sugars will give a high alcohol bottle, but the vintage’s concentrated acidity is there to balance it.

Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru Cuvée François de Salins
Over 80 per cent of the vines in this plot – which is part of the historic Le Charlemagne sector of the Grand Cru – are more than 25 years old. Aromas are rich and complex, the palate being full-structured, with superb, creamy freshness and lovely, harmonious length. Surely an outstanding wine.

Meursault-Charmes Cuvée Albert Grivault
These vines are superbly placed within Meursault-Charmes-dessus, lying just downhill from the heart of Meursault-Perrières. The 2008 wine has ripeness and freshness on the nose. On the palate, it is full and round, showing magnificent richness with minerality, and balancing crispness.

Bâtard-Montrachet Cuvée Dames de Flandres
I visited this vineyard just before the harvest, and I have never seen the vines in such exuberant health (this year’s organic cultivation seems to have suited them well). This was made from a high proportion of tiny grape berries, which gave a small quantity of exceptionally intense juice. Aromas are very concentrated, fragrant and ripe. The wine is rich, round and magnificent – giving an enthrallingly sumptuous Bâtard-Montrachet, with harmonious, exceptionally long aftertaste.

Corton-Vergennes Grand Cru Cuvée Paul Chanson
Located only three hundred metres downhill from Corton-Charlemagne Cuvée Charlotte Dumay, this wine has a totally different flavour profile, being more concentrated, opulent and rich. The nose is fragrant, open and lively, leading into outstanding quality on the palate. The wine has fruit intensity, with its own, exciting mineral character, finishing fresh, rich and very long.

Meursault-Charmes Cuvée de Bahèzre de Lanlay
Tasting from a barrel which had finished is alcoholic fermentation, this was spectacularly beautiful, with citrus and peach on the nose. Ageing in fine-grained Tronçais oak barrels, this shows lovely balance between ripeness, fruit intensity and crisp length.

Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru Cuvée Charlotte Dumay (blanc)
These vineyards face due east, and lie high on the hill. Fermenting slowly, being regularly lees-roused, it shows freshness, with minerality. Less fat than Corton-Vergennes, it has admirable fruit intensity, crispness, and fine length.

Meursault-Genevrières Cuvée Baudot
Ripe and rich on the nose, full-bodied, lively and complex on the palate, this has the makings of a beautiful, harmonious wine, with splendid length.

Meursault Cuvée Goureau
Pungent, with fresh aromas of ripe apricots, this is opulent, balanced and magnificent. It will be a luscious, complex bottle of Meursault, for drinking from 2010 onwards, to 2014 and beyond.

RED WINES

Beaune 1er Cru Cuvée Nicolas Rolin
Purple-ruby of medium depth, the nose being very fresh, brambly and new-oak spicy. This is fleshy and intense, with concentrated fruitiness and rich tannins. Nicolas Rolin is made from a high proportion of really fine Pinot plants, with small bunches and tiny berries. This 2008 has intense fruit concentration and undoubted potential for ageing.

Corton Grand Cru Cuvée Dr. Peste
Attractive, purple-red in colour, with cleanly ripe, spicy aromas. On the palate this is strikingly fresh, with impressive richness. Fruit concentration, powerful structure, balanced tannins and harmonious length are all remarkable. Corton Dr. Peste vineyards face mainly south, catching maximum sunshine. Grapes from the Fiètre plot of Corton, within the village of Aloxe (which sometimes in the past have been excluded) made it past the rigorous selection process, in 2008. This is one of the greatest red Cuvées in the cellar in 2008, and will certainly age superbly.

Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Cru Cuvée Forneret
This has the deepest, purple-red colour of the three Savignys, the nose being rich and fresh, with raspberry character. The palate is an explosion of striking fruitiness, showing lovely balance and fine tannins, with nothing in excess - for early to mid-term drinking.

Clos de la Roche Grand Cru Cuvée Georges Kritter
There are two Cuvée names for one identical Clos de la Roche wine. There are just 3 barrels of Cyrot-Chaudron, and 2 of Georges Kritter, in 2008. They were made in one vat, then given the names of two different, generous recent benefactors, who each donated funds to buy the vineyards.

Tasting note, same as Cuvée Cyrot-Chaudron:
Rich, deep purple colour. Freshly ripe, open aromas, showing some whole bunch fermentation character (50 per cent was not de-stemmed). Palate is rich and vinous, lively and concentrated, with splendid length. Tannins are silky; this will be sumptuous, and vies with Mazis-Chambertin to be the greatest 2008 red wine in the cellar.

Beaune 1er Cru Cuvée Clos des Avaux
Garnet-purple of medium depth, with spicy, Pinot Noir and undergrowth aromas. This a fresh bullet of classic, Beaune fruitiness, well structured but not heavy, balanced by rich tannins on the aftertaste.

Pommard Cuvée Raymond Cyrot
Rich, purple-red, with presently muted, roasted fruit aromas. As in 2007, this is a great success - a richly built wine, with real stuffing in middle palate, and solid, cherry fruit. The tannins are plentiful, earthy and mouth-coating, without bitterness. This is a splendid wine for the medium and long term.

Volnay-Santenots 1er Cru Cuvée Gauvain
Fresh, purple-garnet of medium depth, with clean, ripe raspberry aromas, and spiciness from new oak. This did not have such a long vatting as is usual for the Volnays, as the vineyard had been in the path of a hail-storm in late July, and rigorous elimination of damaged grapes was necessary. The wine is fresh, lively and well-built, with harmonious aftertaste. Envisage buying this for relatively early enjoyment 2011-2016.

Beaune 1er Cru Cuvée Brunet
Respectable purple-red in colour, with intense aromas of fresh grapes. This was picked at splendid ripeness, towards the end of the vintage period. First palate impression is full and fleshy, with good structure and fine tannins. This can be enjoyed youthful, but will also be a keeper.

Pommard Cuvée Billardet
Run off from vat to barrel the day preceding our October tasting, this resembled a black-fruits breakfast smoothy, and was impossible to fathom. Two weeks later, all sugars had still not been transformed, so – as with Beaune Rousseau-Deslandes – it is early days to make an assessment. The palate shows good structure, with fleshy fruit and substance. Tannins are present, without bitterness. Definitely showing promise.

WHITE WINES

Meursault-Porusots 1er Cru Cuvée Jéhan Humblot
This 2008 has a very pretty nose, the palate being clean, full and rich in length. Good freshness, fruit intensity and harmony, for early and mid-term drinking.

Pouilly-Fuissé Cuvée Françoise Poisard
The nose is open, fresh and clean, the palate being full-bodied, with well-delineated fruitiness and crisp, long, fresh aftertaste. This is an outstanding success in 2008, and one of the best Pouilly-Fuissé ever made at the Hospices, certainly comparable to the 2006. The wine is fermenting in “one-year” barrels, allowing the stony minerality of Pouilly-Fuissé its full expression.

Meursault Cuvée Loppin
Nose shows piercing, citrus character, the palate having medium-weight structure and concentrated fruitiness, with mineral, crisp finish.

RED WINES

Beaune 1er Cru Cuvée Maurice Drouhin
The vineyards reached ripeness early, allowing this to be picked on the first days of the vintage. Colour is purple-garnet of medium depth, the nose being clean and ripely fruity, the palate beautifully balanced. This is one of the most successful Maurice Drouhin cuvées I have ever tasted, with structure, ripe fruitiness, and mouth-coating, soft tannins all in place, promising excellent development in the medium term.

Auxey-Duresses 1er Cru Les Duresses Cuvée Boillot
These grapes were allowed to hang exceptionally long in 2008, exactly as in 2007, producing superbly ripe bunches. The fine Pinots, on a gently sloping site, are perfectly located on the village’s best hillside. The wine is rich, purple-red, with ripe, black fruits aromas, showing good potential complexity on the nose. This is medium-structured, with engaging, richly-textured fruitiness, and a clean, well-balanced aftertaste, with mouth-coating tannins. Ageing in 50 per cent new oak, in “zebra” barrels, this is a wine to buy for 2-3 years bottle-ageing, or more.

Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Cru Cuvée Fouquerand
Attractive, garnet-purple, with clean, very ripe, red fruits aromas. Initial impression is of a broadly-structured wine, which is slightly lacking flesh, perhaps, in the middle palate, at this early stage - but with impressive tannins and fine aftertaste.

Pommard Cuvée Suzanne Chaudron
Rich red-purple, the nose showing clean, cherry character, with freshness. The medium body and luscious fruitiness, with relatively soft tannins, indicate that this is a Pommard with great charm – for earlier drinking than the other Pommards, but its fine balance will ensure harmonious ageing. There are sixteen barrels, in two parcels.

Volnay-Santenots 1er Cru Cuvée Jéhan de Massol
Garnet-red of medium depth, the aromas being open, fresh and pungent. This wine received shorter vatting-time than is normal for Volnay-Santenots at the Hospices, with extra-gentle pressing. This was due to some vines having been hail-damaged, requiring a lengthy sorting process. The result is charmingly fruity, the wine having medium structure, gentle tannins and harmonious length.

Monthelie 1er Cru Les Duresses Cuvée Lebelin
Bright, ruby-purple of medium depth, the nose showing lively, cherry and raspberry fruitiness. On the palate, this is medium-bodied, with good fruit intensity, and some grip – but the tannins are balanced, promising fine evolution, in the medium term.

Beaune 1er Cru Cuvée Hugues et Louis Bétault
Red-purple of medium depth, with aromas showing cassis and new oak spiciness. This has open, fresh fruitiness, with strong, characterful aftertaste, and well-balanced tannins.

Pernand-Vergelesses 1er Cru Cuvée Rameau-Lamarosse
Attractive purple of medium depth, with open, fresh raspberry aromas. Not big-structured, but the palate shows a strikingly lively, intense fruitiness, with a crisp, harmonious finish.

Beaune 1er Cru Cuvée Cyrot-Chaudron
Rich, purple-red colour, with shriveled grape-skin aromas. These grapes come from high on the Beaune hillside, over-looking Pommard. In 2008 the fruit was ripe, and healthy. The wine has rich structure, with good stuffing, slightly earthy tannins which are marked but not excessive, and a clean, fresh finish.

Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Cru Cuvée Arthur Girard
Red-purple of medium depth, with lovely Pinot aromas. This is round and well-built, with fleshy middle palate, fine tannins, showing good potential for mid-term ageing.

NOTES ON THE HOSPICES DE BEAUNE 2008 WINE-MAKING

Wine-making: Red Wines
The grapes came in cool from the picking, so in 2008 there was no need to chill them, prior to the start of the pre-fermentation macerations. These took place at approx. 11-15 degrees Celsius, to aid extraction of fine, purple colour and aromas, and lasted 5-6 days. Fermentation then took place over a further 9-12 days. For those vineyards which had suffered some hail damage, cold-soaking lasted on average 2 days, with slightly shorter vatting periods. Regular, gentle punchings-down (pigeage) took place in 2008, from the beginnings of the fermentation, on average twice per day. This was more extensive than in 2007, due to the fine health and ripeness of those 2008 grapes which were selected for the vats.

Thanks to these good levels of ripeness in the Pinot Noir skins, colouring matter, aromas and flavours moved gradually into the fermenting juice. Total vatting times were less on Cuvées like Auxey-Duresses, Monthelie and Pernand-Vergelesses. The Savigny, Beaune and Pommard cuvées totaled approximately 13-15 days, with longer for the Grands Crus (approximately 15-18 days).

The vast majority of press wines gave juice which was neither bitter nor astringent, and they were incorporated into each cuvée of reds, after careful tasting, before the wines were run off into barrels. So, what we taste today is what we will get.

The Character of the Red Wines
We do not have a strong impression of powerful structure or dense tannins in these wines, such as would give the potential for a very long life, while they reach maturity. The vintage resembles 2007, in the sense that the wines may not need very long tending (élevage). It may be sensible to bottle some after 15 or 18 months barrel-ageing. The natural acidity levels are higher than usual, but given the good level of grape maturity, the acidity is balanced by fruitiness, and it will keep the wines fresh, as they age.

Are they like the 1996s, one may wonder, which had bright fruit, and also fresh acidities ? Not really, for there was no sorting in 1996, and consequently these 2008s are riper. Or the 2001s ? The 2008s seem to have rounder tannins, with more flesh. “Today, we only put ripe grapes in the vats,” says Roland Masse, “we take the best, and ripest grapes, and work with those.”

These 2008 red wines show real consistency of clean, healthy, attractive fruitiness, such as we saw in 2007. Prior to malo-lactic fermentations, it is impossible to know their final acidity balances – will they be mild, or remain lively ? The wines appear harmoniously structured, with a classic, cool-climate, lively red Burgundy fruitiness. There are examples which will mature relatively early – where fruit and finesse are to the fore. There are others where ample structure, densely-textured fruitiness and refreshing, complex aftertastes promise decades of fine complexities, as they mature.

Winemaking: White Wines
After pneumatic pressing, the grape-juice was left to settle in tank for 24-36 hours, before being gravity-fed into new oak, fine-grained Tronçais barrels (one-year-old barrels, in the case of the Pouilly-Fuissé) in the Hospices underground cellars. The juice was naturally fresh and cool, so there was no need to cool it down.

Rousing of the yeasts and wine-lees in the barrel (bâtonnage) began rapidly, taking place 2-3 times a week, the amount of lees-stirring being adapted to the needs of each Cuvée individually.

These wines had high levels of natural sugar, with superbly concentrated, balancing acidities – they will give classic, mouth-filling white Burgundies of the highest quality. They have finesse, fruit density, and admirably balanced aftertastes.

Have certain villages done better than others?
First impressions are that this year’s Beaunes, Pommards and Cortons are more consistent than the Volnays. Some hail-damage on the latter’s hillsides required extensive sorting, and the yields are consequently reduced. We advise casting your red wine buying net widely, including amongst the lesser-known villages. Those grapes were allowed to ripen for up to a week longer than usual on the vines, thanks to the great, late harvest weather. The Savignys, Auxey and Monthelie have excelled themselves. The rare barrels of Grands Crus Mazis-Chambertin and Clos de la Roche are sure to prove amongst the most fascinating, and fiercely contested, when auctioned on 16 November.

Amongst the white wines, there are many superb examples, at all price levels. Please refer to our detailed tasting notes.

Is 2008 a Red Wine Vintage, or a White Wine Vintage?
There is no doubting the quality, balance and potential of the whites. Production, however, was severely reduced – to half a normal crop, for some Cuvées – so rarity may keep prices firm. For the chance to combine great value with lovely quality, we recommend the 2008 reds. This is a Burgundy-lover’s vintage, and we urge you to place bids not just judiciously, but expansively. These wines will be impressively delicious when youthful, and many will surprise us with their ability to age well, developing intriguing complexities, smoothness and harmony.