2003 Puligny-Montrachet Les Combettes 1er Cru

Martin Prieur describes 2004 as "a vintage with a lot of purity and fruit, creamy like 2000 but with more material, more density." Co-manager Bertrand Devillard believes that it's a great vintage for Burgundy's white wines, "like a crisper version of 1992," but more difficult in pinot noir due to the August hailstorm and the large size of the crop. Domaine Prieur always harvests very late, and the 2004 whites were not chaptalized. As always, tasting the young wines here was an adventure, as the malos in this very cold cellar are normally late. Incidentally, more new oak than usual was used in 2003 "to give more backbone to the wines," according to Prieur. (W. J. Deutsch & Sons, White Plains, NY) Also tasted: Meursault Santenots*.

The winemaking team at Domaine Prieur acidified their very rich 2003s twice during the fermentations. Due to the very thick juice (the lees were almost mustard-yellow in color, noted Martin Prieur), the estate did a full 24-hour settling of the must, and then less batonnage than usual. I have limited my notes below to the 2003s that were at least nearly through their malolactic fermentations (the secondary fermentations are typically late to finish in this deep, very cold cellar). Sugar levels were a solid 14% for the Montrachet and Puligny-Montrachet Combettes but more like 13. 5% for the Meursault Perrieres. Interestingly, enologist Nadine Gublin maintains, as do a number of her colleagues, that there's very little oxidizable material in the 2003s, and that the wines may surprise with their longevity. The estate's 2002s, a few of which did not finish their malolactic fermentations until September of 2003, have turned out impressively. (W. J. Deutsch & Sons, White Plains NY