The Goisot 2007 Cotes d’Auxerre Corps de Garde – representing, as usual, a blend from three sites, the best barrels from which are separately-bottled – displays an oak-induced note of lanolin in the nose, beneath which emerge scents of toasted nuts and grapefruit zest. It offers an impressive sense of substantiality and richness of texture, but – while maintaining of modicum of refreshment – still fails to offer the brightness or clarity to mineral elements of the estate’s basic Cotes d’Auxerre cuvee (and adds some bitterness, too). Nor does it display anything like the compelling personalities that generally accrue to Goisot’s single-site bottlings. But long before those prestige wines were being singled out for separate bottling, I generally thought the Corps de Garde cuvee struggled against its wood, and that is definitely my impression in this instance. I would plan on drinking this over the next 2-3 years. Guilhem Goisot (whose name has now replaced that of his mother in this estate’s official title) echoed the sentiments of many regional growers that the grapes – while already adequately high in sugar at the end of August – were simply not ripe. But time was on an Auxerrre vintner’s side in 2007, and the Goisots were able to pick selectively, parcel by parcel, for three weeks, as compared with nine days in 2006. Their single-vineyard bottlings came close to 13.5% in natural alcohol, those few lots that approached 14% having been consigned to blends. Sauvignon, with its characteristically southwestern exposures (hail-free this year), was picked last – albeit already mid-September – and adequately ripe.Thomas Calder Selections (various importers), Paris; fax 011-33-1-46-45-15-29