2000 Musigny

Dominique Laurent describes 2001 as "a very classy vintage, a bit like '78 and '85 but from a growing season with a more normal climate." Laurent's best bottlings boast the creamy sweetness (many of his wines come from ancient pinot fin vines) to support their high percentage of sexy new oak-in many instances his special "magic casks," which he makes from extra-thick Troncais oak staves. And the wines, judging from my tasting of a range of Laurent's finished 2000s, are more consistent today than in prior vintages. My suppliers are doing better vinifications now than ever before. Previously, in a great year the wines were great. But in lesser vintages, some of them could be meager. Now they're much more consistent." Laurent bottled his 2000s between April and July of 2002, a bit early by his standards, and expected to bottle the 2001s between June and September of this year, possibly after carrying out an extra racking "for the big boys, the crus that start in all new oak." Few eleveurs use extended barrel aging so effectively to fill out the textures and extend the finishes of their wines: the 2000s that I tasted in blind flights against their peers in January and early February were consistently the deepest and longest wines on the table. These wines also held their fruit for days in the recorked bottles.

Laurent is quite proud of his village wines in 2000, since it was especially tough to get solid quality at this level of the Burgundy hierarchy. The high percentage of old vines he works with were of critical importance in 2000, Laurent noted. He also told me he prefers his Nuits-Saint-Georges cuvees in 2000 to the '99s due to the lower crop levels. In my notes below, the Gevrey-Chambertin Vieilles Vignes and all subsequent wines had been assembled a week prior to my visit; Laurent felt that they were less clear and pure as a result, and in a difficult stage to be tasted. I continue to fancy the wines Laurent ages in his special "magic casks," which he makes from extra-thick Troncais oak staves (40 millimeters, vs. 27 for a normal Burgundy barrel). These barrels have the advantage of sweetening a wine tannins without bringing harsh oakiness. Incidentally, Laurent bottled most of his '99s in the late winter and early spring of 2001, whereas the '98s remained in barrel for a very long 24 to 30 months. He expected to wait until June of 2002 to begin bottling his 2000s, which he says are developing rather like the '99s did.