Lucien Muzard & Fils, Santenay Premier Cru (Burgundy, France) 2008

 When tasting red Burgundy I’m more likely to give points for poise than power, so if you want something big and burly, you might want another reviewer’s advice.  Conversely, if you are done with chunky, obvious Pinot and want some finesse, this is a terrific choice at a quite reasonable price–at least in the scheme of Burgundy pricing.  The wine delivers lots of aroma and flavor but is marvelously light and even “lacy,” in the sense that its aromatic and flavor elements present themselves but always let you “see” through them to other aspects of the wine.  Those include fresh fruit flavors of red cherry with backnotes of dark cherries, buttressed by just enough tannin to frame the fruit without drying it or foreshortening the finish.  There’s virtually no overt oak influence, and the finish is fresh and lively and amazingly long for a wine of such light weight.