2007 Puligny-Montrachet Les Combettes 1er Cru

"Both 2008 and 2007 were saved by ten days of good weather before the harvest," noted Gerard Boudot. He began harvesting in 2008 on September 23, bringing in fruit with 13% to 13.5% potential alcohol (higher than in 2007) and with "a bit of surmaturite." The harvest required a lot of work, he told me. "We needed to pick out the grey rot and keep the pinker grapes. It was a small crop, especially after the selection, but the crop level had actually been smaller than 2007 since the flowering." He did a stricter settling of the must in 2008-in contrast to 2007 and 2005, two very clean vintages that required almost no debourbage. Ultimately, Boudot describes the 2008s as "between 2007 and 2006 in style, with higher acidity than 2006 but less of an exotic character." And he noted that "there's no reason why the 2007s won't last a long time," telling me that he now uses 40 ppm SO2 for the bottling, as well as thicker corks and silicone rather than paraffin to facilitate cork extractability. As to earlier vintages, Boudot admitted that "there's a lot of premature oxidation in my 1999s, the 2000s are in good shape, and the 2001s won't last a long time." (Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL)

Gerard Boudot harvested early in 2007, beginning on September 3 "The vegetative cycle was really finished by about August 25, and after that the grapes gained sugar through evaporation," he told me. "After about September 6 or 7 the grapes started to lose their tartaric acidity. It was better to pick early and chaptalize a bit than to lose acidity in 2007," he concluded. The crus came in with potential alcohol in the 12.5% to 12.8% range, and Boudot used a sorting table for all of his vineyards in '07. Boudot was not the only winemaker to express the opinion that 2007 favored the base of the hill to mid-slope. "Conditions were a bit tougher on the more minerally top of the hillside," he said. I tasted from barrels that had finished their malolactic fermentations at the end of May, but some older barrels still had some malic acidity remaining. Boudot was still stirring the lees every three weeks. He considers 2007 to be a vintage for medium-term drinking, over the next 3 to 15 years. "The wines started out a bit hard, but they're developing well with elevage," he told me. Incidentally, Boudot says that 2006 has similarities to 1986, beginning with an element of noble rot. "It was critical to pick early in 2006," he summarized. "The wines are not enormous, but the element of noble rot has given them fat and power." In fact, Boudot's wines display considerable immediate sex appeal, while the top '05s here really call for five or six years of patience. (Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL)