Lightly-cooked cherry and red currant, mingle on the nose of Claude Dugat’s 2007 Charmes Chambertin, then re-emerge on an infectiously juicy, silken, subtly sweet palate. When tasted immediately after his 2008s, this offers both striking and welcome contrast due to its generosity of fruit, textural polish, and spiciness. Faint hints of game add complexity and a slightly drying hint of tannin diminishes the otherwise impressively persistent finish slightly. Still, this ought to perform impressively for at least the next 5-7 years, and quite possibly beyond that, though I would want to monitor it in a few years’ time to properly assess that possibility. Claude Dugat reports that his triage in 2008 was more for rot than under-ripe berries, since his routine willingness to resort to drastic crop-dropping serves to guarantee that the fruit matures. He did however report back-off slightly on the total length of maceration. Importer: Robert Kacher Selections, Washington, DC; tel. (202) 832-9083