2002 Musigny Vieilles Vignes Grand Cru

I was unable to taste this estate's 2003s, as the wines had been recently bottled and enologist Francois Millet does not show his wines in the months following the mise.(Musigny was the notable exception; it was still aging in barrel and was slated to be bottled in early December.)Millet noted that he also bottled the '89s early, "to preserve fruit, body and purity."In fact, the malos in 2003 finished in November of that year, so the wines spent almost their normal post-malo term on the lees.The 2002s here are spectacular; if the bottling were an Olympic event, Millet might have rated a perfect 10.(Dreyfus-Ashby & Co., New York, NY; Ideal Wines, Medford, MA; Barrique Wines, Chicago, IL; Chambers & Chambers, San Francisco, CA; The Wine Company, Minneapolis, MN, Vintner Select, Cincinnati, OH)

Enologist Francois Millet, who has an impressively broad vocabulary for describing the nature of the fruit in each new Burgundy vintage, characterizes his young 2002s as having "jelly fruits, the liquid part of the jam.This gives sweetness but not heaviness, which offers a very good combination with the vintage's very fresh acidity.It's a vintage of happiness, where all the elements go together well."The estate carried out a less severe green harvest in July than they did with the copious 2000 vintage.In 2001, too, notes Millet, "we needed even more than usual to do a green harvest, in order to get phenolic ripeness and balanced acidity.This is a rational, more Cartesian vintage that doesn't have any fantasy," he concludes. Today, the acids are going against the current of the wines."The 2002s had been racked for the second time in October.(Dreyfus-Ashby & Co., New York, NY; Ideal Wines, Medford, MA; Barrique Wines, Chicago, IL; Chambers & Chambers, San Francisco, CA; The Wine Company, Minneapolis, MN, Vintner Select, Cincinnati, OH)