2010 Puligny-Montrachet Clos de la Mouchère 1er Cru

Henri Boillot describes his 2011s as more floral and fruity than his 2010s but less mineral."It's like the difference between Meursault Genevrieres and Perrieres," he summarized."The Genevrieres is all about fruit while the Perrieres is rocky and saline. Two thousand eleven is characterized by lichee, peach and ripe pear:white fruits.But the vintage also has a good vertebral column, similar to 2010."As is his habit, Boillot picked his chardonnay early ("I wanted spine"), beginning on August 29.Acidity levels are in the sound 4.15 to 4.5 grams-per-liter range and pHs are low.The wines are bone-dry (under one gram per liter, according to Boillot), but he noted that "creaminess gives them gras and sucrosite."Boillot has made some of the finest wines of the vintage in 2011.

Henri Boillot recently finished his move to a new modern cellar in Champ Lins, one of the industrial sections of Meursault. Boillot describes his 2011s as having a bit more richness and better balance of fruit and acidity than the 2010s. Based on what I tasted, it's hard to argue that point. Boillot seems to be one case where the 2011s have the potential to be better across the board than the 2010s. As is often the case here, the village wines are particularly strong.

Boillot, who is often an early harvester, especially for chardonnay, did not start bringing in his 2010 chardonnay until September 28, and he picked his pinot noir in October. He believes that some of his colleagues picked too early. "We had a good bit of maturity without losing acidity," he told me. "Waiting a little longer brought more fruit, but without loss of freshness. Besides, in those later days we had a dry north wind. And the thick skins from millerandage had been able to support the bad weather conditions in August." Boillot did no debourbage, bringing about 25 liters of lees into each of his 350-liter barrels. Even without batonnage, he said, the wines will absorb about 10 liters of lees during their time in barrel. As to 2009, Boillot started harvesting chardonnay very early, on September 3, then waited a week to start the pinot. "White Burgundy is about acidity, and pinot is about maturity," he told me. "White wines are about precision, minerality, freshness; they should be strict at the beginning. Burgundy has to refresh the mouth." I have limited my notes on the 2010s to wines that had finished, or were just at the end of, their malolactic fermentations. (Importers include Massanois Imports, Washington, D.C.; Chelsea Ventures, Kenilworth, IL; and Milton Road Trading Company, Napa, CA)