Scents of smoky black tea, blond tobacco, plum, and cherry in the Chevillon 2007 Nuits-St.-Georges Les Perrieres segue into a savory, saline, smoky, and generously-fruited palate that harbors hints of raisined berries and tannic rasp. Still, this displays admirably juicy persistence, with a bittersweet note of toasted pecan adding to the smoky piquancy in a lingering finish. I’d be inclined to drink it over the next 4-5 years, or at least monitoring it lest desiccated berries or a dry spot of tanning become more prominent features. Bertrand Chevillon reported the typically late, long malos of the 2008 vintage, and the Chevillon crus were not bottled until last spring – subsequent to my tastings of them, which took place in part assembled from tank and in part from representative selections of barrels. Interestingly, Chevillons report a normal crop level, stressing that vigilance and diligence in vine treatments made for a healthy crop. Most of the musts weighed-in between 12.5% and 13% potential alcohol and chaptalization was minimal. Bernard Chevillon compares his family’s 2008 with their 2001 –an underestimation, I suspect – and his 2007s with the less interesting, structured, fresh-fruited, or consistent 2000s, an analogy that strikes me as apt. (The Bourgogne and Les St.-Georges, incidentally, had been committed right down to the bottle chez Chevillon by the time I got ‘round to tasting 2007s, hence the absence of notes on those.) Importer: Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA; tel. (510) 524-1524