Hints of game and animal fur as well as musky perfume of peony and narcissus all contribute funk to the aromatic complexity of Bize-Leroy’s 2008 Vosne-Romanee Aux Brulees, whose sweet side is represented by ripe black fruits, garlanded in heliotrope and fading lily. A marine alliance of alkalinity and mouthwateringly salinity joins peat, chalk, black tea, and forest underbrush and detritus on a silken, strikingly buoyant palate that really takes one on a tour of the dark, decadent mansion of Vosne-Romanee. This finishes darkly, deeply, envelopingly – and yet, the vivacious impingement of fresh berries, piquancy of tea and fruit pit, and invigorating pungency of mineral salts offer quickening 2008 typicity as well as a striking sense of counterpoint. This fits the Burgundian saying about Pinot offering a glass of night before you go into your own long night, and I hope to meet this sinisterly profound Vosne once more before The Reaper calls me. This wine harbors 20-25 years of vigor. (About myself, I’m a little less sure.) Lalou Bize-Leroy reports average 2008 Pinot Noir yields of 13 hectoliters per hectare, almost absurdly tiny even by her singular standards. Malos were a bit later than usual but were finished by summer, and the wines bottled – as usual – in December. Yet – also as usual – if their development was thereby in any way stunted, you certainly won’t detect it in the bottle today! The best of these display a sense of transparency; levity; and – even when rich and head-spinningly complex – a sheer sense of refreshment and invigoration that I have seldom encountered in other great wines from these sister estates. (Please note that my account of the complete 2007 red collection at Leroy was published in issue #189.) Importer: Martine’s Wines. Novato, CA; tel. (415) 883-040