2008 Bienvenue-Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru

This domain will be divided between brothers Jacques and Francois Carillon as of the 2010 vintage, with Jacques keeping the Puligny-Montrachet Les Referts and Bienvenue-Batard-Montrachet and splitting the Puligny villages, Puligny-Montrachet Les Perrieres and Chassagne-Montrachet Les Macharelles with his brother. In vintages 2009 and 2008, they made the wines together but will divide up the bottles to sell under their two labels (Jacques working with Rosenthal Wine Merchant and Francois with Vineyard Brands). According to Jacques, the brother I have tasted with through the years and again in early June, the estate picked early in 2009 "to preserve acidity and minerality," bringing in fruit with around 12.8% potential alcohol and chaptalizing lightly. He views 2009 as an opulent style of wine, with the fat of years like 2006 and 2005. In contrast, 2004, 2007 and 2008 are more classic mineral-driven, old-style Burgundies. Whereas the malos were very late to finish in 2008, in 2009 they were done in four to six weeks, noted Carillon. (Rosenthal Wine Merchant, Pine Plains, NY; Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL) Also recommended: Puligny-Montrachet (86).

Like a number of his colleagues, Jacques Carillon told me that the north wind in September of '08 had the effect of concentrating sugars and minerality in the grapes, the result being wines with similar acidity to 2007 but more gras. The Carillons eliminated the dry rot but kept the nobly rotten grapes, which further contributed to the impression of roundness in the wines and has accentuated their fruit. With one exception, my notes are limited to cuvees that had finished their malos as of the time of my visit.