WA 94 · Wine Advocate
Bize-Leroy’s 2008 Savigny-Les-Beaune Les Narbantons is one in a long line of amazing demonstrations that this site can deliver profound complexity and pleasure, but I doubt that there has been – and certainly I haven’t tasted – a more impressive instance, or indeed any more impressive young Savigny. Site-typical carnal elements in the nose are especially clean rather than gamy, and allied to suggestions of red fruit distillates, ocean spray, and forest floor. An infectiously mouthwatering savor of tiny red fruits (lingonberry, red currant, fraise du bois); red filet-mignon juices; rich beef marrow; mineral salts; leather; and brown spices floods and invigorates the texturally seamless, incipiently satiny palate in a show of palpable density and gripping persistence that somehow also leaves room for tenderness. Tea like smokiness and tannin that suffuse this Savigny similarly do not preclude a vintage-typical sense of vivacity. A vibratory, kaleidoscopic finish caps this thrilling effort that ought to be worth following for a quarter century.