Savigny-lès-Beaune "La Dominode" 2001

Gorgeously intense, refined and very fresh elegant red and black fruit trimmed in damp, fresh earth aromas lead to big though not robust flavors that display knock out depth of extract, excellent richness and dazzling length. Quite backward and tight and this will require the better part of a decade to be at its best. Highly recommended and for what the Pavelot wines usually sell for, an indisputable bargain.

Jean-Marc Pavelot told me that 2002 "was slightly less generous in terms of yields but a good deal more so in terms of sugar as everything came in between 12.5 and 13%. As a consequence, we chaptalized only to prolong the fermentations, not to add alcohol. The malos were quite long, which I always view as a very positive sign as it keeps the wines fresh and permits them to feed off of their fine lees. In terms of the wines, '02 is a very homogenous vintage with very good to excellent quality across the board. The wines are quite ripe, certainly riper than the '01s and they should reward cellaring over the medium term but I don't think it's a vintage to hold for 20 years". Pavelot said that most of the wines were bottled between October and December with the remaining two to go into bottle in March. As the scores suggest, the Pavelot '02s are excellent wines fashioned in a very ripe pinot style though I left ever so slightly disappointed as I expected a bit more, perhaps because I consider him to be one of the two reference standards in Savigny and whose wines are worth a serious look each and every vintage. To be sure, there is very good quality here but the '02s are not necessarily better than the excellent Pavelot '01s. I did have the chance to retaste several '01s and they performed almost identically as to how they showed