This is relatively elegant and very very fresh with pretty red and blue pinot fruit aromas that are cut with notes of earth and a whiff of the sauvage that can also be found on the delicious and solidly complex middle weight flavors that possess fine vibrancy on the lingering finish. This is not overly refined but it's very well-balanced and delivers fine quality for its level.

Pungently herbal aromas suggesting sage licorice and wormwood mark the Arlaud 2008 Morey-St.-Denis. Well-concentrated and surprisingly silken in texture for a village wine of its vintage this brightly rather than tartly red-fruited Pinot evinces an attractively and stubbornly-persistent medicinal character in its bittersweet finish. It really leaves me licking my lips and should hold well for at least a half dozen years.