The Raphet 2008 Gevrey-Chambertin Les Combottes smells of sandalwood and lightly-cooked cherry; displays generous fruit with salt-tinged, marrow-like meatiness and hints of caramelized parsnip and blond tobacco on a slightly gritty palate; and finishes long but with a hit of heat and some lip-numbing, characteristics I suspect reflect in part this wine's relative lack of buffering density. I would plan to drink it over the next several years. Gerard Raphet's 2008s finished malo by the end of the following January, which is amazingly early for this vintage, and not necessarily advantageous. (He suspects the environment of his new facility has something to do with that rapidity.) He bottled them last January. As a group these wines are not particularly dark or youthful in color, nor do they for the most part exhibit the sort of brightness that I associate with their vintage. That said, they are generous and charming, often with attractively-integrated hints of caramelization. Yields were way down in both 2007 and 2008, notes Raphet, though one can hardly attribute any special degree of vinous concentration to this fact. In common with me, Raphet finds his 2007s - which to my surprise held their own vis-a-vis 2008 - ideal for drinking young.Peter Vezan Selections (various importers), Paris; fax 011 33 1 42 55 42 93
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