2007 Domaine Joseph Voillot, Pommard Premier Cru, Les Pezerolles

Scents of leather, shoe polish, game, purple plum preserves, peat, and black pepper enthusiastically announce the 2007 Pommard Pezerolles. Almost creamy in texture and tender in fruit, its smoky and carnal aromatic elements echo only understatedly a fine-grained, almost silken palate. The finish here practically glides off, slippery and subtle but seductively sweetly fruited and long. This most unusual and alluring example of its appellation strikes me on balance as rather vintage typical in its need to be enjoyed relatively young, say within the next 4-5 years. ”The domaines that work seriously and well in their vineyards are the ones who succeeded in 2006, 2007, and 2008,” maintains Jean-Pierre Charlot’s, who claims to have been pleasantly surprised not to have encountered significant problems with mildew, oidium, or botrytis in 2008. His 2007s are unusually successful in the context of that vintage, with which he draws parallels to 2009 in that he thinks later harvest at the expense of freshness and early, weak malo that left wines vulnerable during elevage were significant potential pitfalls. When it comes to difficult conditions and problematic results, he insists, none of the subsequent vintages should be compared with 2004. As usual at this address, Charlot was happy to have obtained potential alcohol levels of 12-12.5% in both 2007 and 2008, which he then lightly boosted. His 2008 collection – in which the Pommards, unusually in my experience at Voillot, outshone the Volnays – was due to have been bottled within 2-3 weeks after I tasted it in March. Importer: Vintage 59, Washington, DC; tel. (202) 966-9218