2007 Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru

According to winemaker Philippe Prost, there was a lot of potassium in the 2008 fruit due to the rains of July and early August, and thus the crystals precipitated quickly in the white wines in barrel and gave the wines an early bitterness. Bouchard's philosophy has always been to pick early, but now, says Prost, "we're also picking more precisely, and we took our time in 2008 to pick chardonnay. In 2004 we had the same potassium quality in the grapes, so we're not surprised that in 2008 it's taking longer for us to be able to see the ultimate definition of the vintage. We have an expression in French: la beaute du diable. The 2008s may be fragile wines, especially where the alcoholic fermentations were fast and then the malos took a long time to start." The 2008s I note below were finished with their malos at the time of my visit.

Bouchard began bringing in pinot noir on August 27 but took a full three weeks to harvest in '07, compared to ten days the previous year, according to managing director Stephane Follin-Arbelet. "We picked the Meursault Genevrieres early, on about September 1," noted winemaker Philippe Prost, "but the top grand crus came in between September 10 and 13." The young whites have less tartaric acidity than the '04s, he added. "We find the '07s to be more like the '02s: they were closed at the beginning, with a lot of malic acidity. We recall that we really weren't able to appreciate the 2002s until November of 2003." Prost did almost no batonnage for the '07s, rolling the barrels instead to redistribute the lees. All of the '07s noted below are domain bottlings except for the four cuvees from Puligny-Montrachet; Bouchard buys must here but also does the vineyard work, selects the harvest date and directs the pressing of the fruit. Prost noted that Bouchard now uses a very expensive "Ferrari" system for bottling its wines without introducing oxygen. Prior to the bottling, the wines spend a month in stainless steel under a layer of nitrogen, which brings the oxygen level down to zero. A vacuum system is then used to fill the bottles, using nitrogen again, and CO2 is added to the top of the bottle before the cork is inserted. "Too many people bottle too quickly, with too much oxygen getting into the wines," Prost explained.