2006 Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru

"The key in 2007 was to have low crop loads and then to wait to pick," said Mounir Saouma, who compared his young 2007 whites to his 2004s. "It was critical to extract sweetness and depth through long malolactic fermentations and elevage," he went on. "The wines have structure but need more of a middle, and the middle is coming from the lees." Saouma noted that global warming is "great for the vineyards but horrible for the cellars." From the '60s through the '80s we harvested 15 times in October, he told me. "But since 2000 we have picked three times in August. The cellars are usually very warm in September, so quick and early malos are possible. And then producers are forced to bottle their wines too early and in a rush." My notes on '07s are limited to wines that had finished their malolactic fermentations, but others were in mid-malo or had not even started. Incidentally, Saouma believes 2006 to be Burgundy's best vintage for white wine in 20 years.(Vintus, Pleasantville, NY; Chicago Wine Merchants Selections, Chicago, IL; Atherton Wine Imports, Atherton, CA)

"The grapes were very ripe in 2006, and acidity levels were slightly low," said Mounir Saouma. "Some wines reached 15% potential alcohol but in this growing season even 13% means more physiological maturity than the numbers would suggest." Saouma's approach to making the wines was "to delay everything." As he explained it: "The flavors were already great in the juice, so we wanted to slow down the evolution of the wines. We had our growers put the barrels in the coolest part of their cellars. And then when we took the barrels we placed them under our roof in January, with a slight sulfur addition, where they remained very cold." Saouma's plan was to bottle the wines earlier than in previous years, as he did for the 2005 reds (but not the whites). While he believes that the '06s will never really shut down in bottle, he predicts that the wines will age for a long time on their balance, and he emphasized that "the numbers don't accurately reflect the balance of the wines." As always, my late spring tasting of white wines here was tricky, as some wines still had a bit of unfermented sugar, while others were not yet finished with their malolactic fermentations. I have omitted notes on certain cuvees that were impossible to assess with confidence. Not only that, but a few of the 2005s I tasted were still in tank awaiting bottling. Due to missed communications, I was able to taste only 2005 grand crus during my visit to the Lucien Le Moine cellar at the beginning of June. (Vintus, Pleasantville, NY; Chicago Wine Merchants Selections, Chicago, IL; Atherton Wine Imports, Atherton, CA)