1999 Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru

The 20th century went out with a bang for red Burgundy lovers, with the 1999 vintage producing copious quantities of excellent to outstanding wine.

From the outset, the 1999 red Burgundies offered a rare combination of charm and power. Most of the better wines were balanced and alluring from the start, but they are evolving very slowly and still have plenty of life ahead of them. While many of the ‘99s I sampled with the producers this winter have gone through sullen stages in bottle, most of them have launched into their periods of peak drinkability. If you own these wines – and especially if you chose wisely at the outset – you will be amply rewarded.

Two thousand was an even riper vintage than '99, said Bernard Dugat. More important, he added, the wines are more harmonious, with more flesh to buffer the tannins. Dugat told me he picked early in 2000 to keep healthy acidity levels; still, grape sugars were mostly in the 12.4% to 12.8% range, and little chaptalization was needed. Like many of his colleagues who originally attracted attention by making big, dark, extracted wines, Dugat says he using "less and less technique today, less intervention in the cuverie " preferring instead to do more work in the vines. The 2000s here are muscular wines in the Dugat style, but not at all heavy.

Bernard Dugat, who carries out every possible step to control yields and benefits from a high percentage of very old vines, is normally in a position to harvest early, with sound sugars. His low yields in '99 allowed him to begin on the first legal day and to pick in five days flat, finishing just as rain started late on September 23rd. Grape sugars were in the very healthy 12.5% range, about the same as those of the previous year, with pHs a bit higher. Dugat took his wines off their skins relatively quickly after the alcoholic fermentations ended to prevent bacteria from multiplying ("I didn't want the malolactic fermentations to begin in cuve ") and to preserve the wines' acidity. These '99s, which Dugat describes as "vins de garde to begin drinking after at least five years in bottle," are quite powerful but a bit more pliant than the wines made at this address just a few years ago. Dugat told me he has done less pigeage since the '97 vintage and generally avoids "technique" as much as possible. Although he did up to 10% saignee for the village parcels in '99, he eschews this method, pointing out that in the parcels he works via metayage arrangements, this would result in significant financial sacrifice. By this, I assume he means that he must deliver the previously agreed-on percentage of the crop to the vineyard owner, and that if he bleeds the cuve he is reducing only his share of the crop.