Originating in Bel Air, Chaponnieres Cherbaudes, and Petite Chapelle, Mortet’s 2008 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru features fresh blueberry, purple plum, and blackberry with bittersweet herbal pungency and a salinity and carnal savor that could almost have been borrowed from Chablis. Indeed the same could practically be said about the wines strikingly bracing, tart-edged and refreshing sense of fruit acidity. Peat-like smokiness, chalk, and hints of carob bean lend a dark dimension to this exhilaratingly long-finishing cuvee that should be worth following for at least a dozen years. Arnaud Mortet was one of several young Burgundy growers to remind me that he had never before witnessed anything remotely like 2008 even in the sense of a vintage about which he was forced to at one point confront the sinking feeling “perhaps the fruit simply won’t ripen.” In the event, he need not have worried, because his knack, low yields (encompassing this year three separate green harvests), and outstanding vineyards teamed-up for a fine collection. Mortet pursued a regimen of very gentle fermentative extraction – as much from stylistic proclivity, though, as from caution –chaptalizing at most a half a degree, and then only on non-cru lots. This was also a vintage with malo-lactic fermentations later than any Mortet had previously witnessed, but I suspect that if his late, great father Denis – or for that matter his grandfather – could testify, they would have said the same. Some lots did not finish until the spring of last year, as a result of which neither Mortet’s Fixin nor his basic village Gevrey were not testable when I last visited. (Nor, unfortunately, did I have opportunity to taste any of Mortet’s 2007s.) Importer: Martine’s Wines, Novato, CA; tel. (415) 883-0400

(an assemblage of four premier crus; almost finished with its malo) Bright, deep ruby. Exotic spices lift sweet aromas of blackberry, licorice pastille and bitter chocolate; reminded me of a cabernet/malbec blend. Sweet, supple and concentrated, with mouthcoating flavors of black fruits and bitter chocolate. This will rely as much on its acids as on its tannins for structure. (The premier crus Champeaux and Lavaut Saint-Jacques were just starting their secondary fermentations.)