L’Arlot’s 2008 Nuits-St.-Georges Les Petits Plets (second wine of their Forets St.-Georges) leads with pungent aromatic intensity of holly berry, cedar, juniper berry, and huckleberry. The palate impression is as pungent and piquant as those aromas led me to anticipate, and is accompanied by considerable gum-numbing astringency. As with the corresponding Petit Arlot, there is sap and primary juiciness as well as some alluring spice in the finish, but it’s harder in this instance for them to break free of the tannins. I would plan tentatively on drinking this within the next 4-6 years; but perhaps the tannins will resolve themselves and the wine eventually prove itself more appealing, knitted, and longer-lived.
Olivier Leriche reports having harvested more robust material in 2008 than in 2007, but notes that a rigorous triage for rot was needed in each instance, and that he took the precaution of significantly reducing in both vintages his usual percentage of stems and whole clusters. Harvest in 2008 was relatively rapid, and concluded October 9, but Leriche notes that its progression was determined by the extent of botrytis incursions rather than by the parcels’ ripeness. The botrytis in 2008 was more insidious, he maintained – echoing comments of several other growers – and the sorting unusually arduous, in that it frequently affected individual berries within the clusters, while triage in 2007 more often consisted of either accepting or rejecting an entire, relatively uniformly healthy or botrytis-afflicted bunch. Surprisingly, several l’Arlot 2008s – Clos du Chapeau, Clos de l’Arlot, les Suchots – finished malo already their first winter; whereas others were protracted and erratic. I tasted the final assemblages just before they were sulfured and bottled, which Leriche – in common with quite a few Burgundy vintners – argues is the best time to taste red Burgundies until after they have had several years in bottle.
Numerous agents and U.S. importers including: Chambers & Chambers, San Francisco, CA; tel. (415) 642-5500, Classic Wine Imports, Norwood, MA, tel. (781) 352-1100, and a Daniel Johnnes Selection, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300
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