1996 Chambertin Clos-de-Bèze Grand Cru

"Why, with the ripest fruit since 1947, and perfectly healthy grape skins, isn't 1997 a great vintage?" I asked winemaker Jacques Lardiere. "It is," he said simply, and then proceeded to show me a set of wines with the headspinning richness of the best Burgundies made in the '40s and '50s. "The problem in Burgundy, though, is that people have become too technological," Lardiere explained. "They lack confidence in the balance of their fruit; they're always thinking in terms of controlling their material, of bringing the vintage back into balance. And then there were the growers who picked too early, before the enzymes and polyphenols were ripe enough to permit easy extraction of color and flavor. There was too much water in the berries at the beginning of the harvest; later picking brought a concentration of sugars and acids." x000D x000D Jadot took maximum advantage of the great ripeness of '97 by harvesting late. According to Lardiere, the house was the last to finish picking on the Cote de Nuits, bringing in the last pinot noir after the chardonnay. Lardiere then did his normal very long cuvaison which lasted 33 to 36 days in '97. (At Jadot new state-of-the-art winery, the new destemmer allows a higher percentage of berries to go into the fermenter uncrushed.) Lardiere is confident that 1997 is an epic vintage of extraordinary richness that will last in bottle for decades. In fact, he not at all convinced that the '96s will age longer, due to the larger size of the crop in the earlier year (in some crus, Jadot did a saignee of as much as 20% in '96). Lardiere is especially high on the '97s from Gevrey Chambertin, which feature the ripest fruit from those parcels he has ever seen. Crop levels were down sharply in '97; only Clos Vougeot and Corton Pougets produced "full" yields. Tasting here in January was a bit of a challenge, as the wines were at various stages of their evolutions. Most of the Jadot '97s underwent very late malolactic fermentations, and many of them had been racked ("essentially for the first time," according to Lardiere") during the four to six weeks prior to my late January visit. The difference in quality between the wines from the domain's own vines (i.e., harvested and made by Jadot) and those vinified by Jadot's numerous suppliers has never been more apparent.

Winemaker Jacques Lardiere pointed out that the extremely even ripening that occurred in 1996 partly mitigates the higher yields of the vintage. "All of the flowering in '96 took place in five days," he pointed out. "The result was very homogeneous ripening, from north to south. This is one reason why there are no rough edges in these '96s." Still, because of the size of the crop, Lardiere carried out a saignee "for everything," but particularly in younger vines, and used even less new oak than usual. He appeared more excited over the quality of the '96s in November than he did about the '95s a year earlier. Lardiere employs a very long cuvaison(28 days was the minimum maceration time for the '96s) to break down the tannins, and I was struck by how harmonious the tannins are in '96. The vintage had higher acidity and higher pHs than those of '95, Lardiere notes, and softer tannins are usually linked with higher pH. Incidentally, the '97 crop was vinified at Jadot new state-of-the-art winery, and their new destemmer will allow a higher percentage of berries to go into the fermenter uncrushed.