Terres Burgondes 2008, Domaine Emmanuel Giboulot

I attended an amazing 2010 en primeur tasting last night, which I'll write about at the weekend. But first, I wanted to report on this red from Domaine Giboulot. The label refers to it as a Vin de Pays de Sainte Marie La Blanche, rather than a Bourgogne. According to Wine-searcher, "A total of 17 small parishes are covered by the Sainte Marie La Blanche title, surrounding the village of the same name located just four miles south-east of Beaune... This is the land beyond the lowest slopes of the Cote d'Or escarpment and it is not granted the right to even the regional Bourgogne appellation. The slopes just to the west are a patchwork of highly prized vines bearing names like Montrachet and Corton. But the land here is flatter, more fertile and better suited to arable farming. That is not to say that no vines are planted, or that quality wine is not produced."

Have to agree on that final point! We decanted this for almost 2 hours before drinking it, as all of Giboulot's wines are biodynamic and definitely seem to benefit from plenty of time in the decanter. It was a dark plummy colour and packed with fruit on the nose - I particularly got tinned strawberries but we also thought there were some peardrops and some melon. To summarise, it smelled delicious! On the palate, it was tongue-tingling, light but packed with flavour and with a core of acidity. As usual with Giboulot, it was very pretty, delicate, classy and scintillating. If we'd been tasting it blind, we'd have guessed that it was a Chorey-les-Beaune, but it was not in the least bit rustic which Chorey sometimes can be. Finally, at just 11.5% alcohol, it offers a great contrast to some of the monster wines being produced elsewhere. No hangovers here. I'm thrilled that I have a case of it.