2009 Chambertin Grand Cru

"Two thousand nine is one of the greatest red wine vintages I've ever made: better than 2005 and 1999 and approaching 1990," Henri Boillot told me in November. "But the 2009s are a bit more bracing than the 1990s." Boillot picked his chardonnay early in 2009, then waited a week before starting with his pinot on September 15. "It was necessary to wait for full phenolic maturity," he told me. "But it wasn't a huge crop and there was not a significant drop in acidity during the last days before we picked. It was the high percentage of millerande grapes and the low yields that made this possible; thick grape skins protect acidity." In fact, thanks in large part to Boillot's strict ebourgeonage, his yields in 2009 were in the 32 to 34 hectoliters-per-hectare range. Grape sugars were mostly between 12.6% and 13%, and Boillot chaptalized a bit to prolong the fermentations. He begins with a cold soak of 12 or 13 days but never does any post-fermentation maceration. And the fruit is always destemmed. The wines had been moved into tanks after the fermentations of the 2010s finished (i.e., about three weeks prior to my visit), and were showing gloriously. Boillot was one of a minority of winemakers to tell me that he's convinced the 2009s will shut down in bottle after a year or so, "due to their tannic mass." He said the index of total polyphenols in his 2009s is as high as 85, compared to 65 in 2005! (Numerous importers, including Massenois Imports, Washington, D.C., Chelsea Ventures, Kenilworth, IL and Milton Road Trading Company, Napa, CA)