2003 Meursault Perrières 1er Cru

Pensive Jean-Pierre Latour, never one to hype a new vintage, compares his young 2004s to the 2000s: "The wines have acidity but come from a very large crop. They are a bit lacking in mid-palate intensity but show excellent purity." Latour maintained that oidium was not an issue in his vineyards, as he carried out treatments early and frequently enough to forestall any serious outbreaks. [Sulfur treatments, effective as a preventative, are of limited use once oidium becomes established.] Latour did a longer-than-average debourbage in 2004 but has done a lot of batonnage. In fact, he was still stirring the lees every two weeks at the time of my visit, and most of the wines were quite hazy. "The problems in 2004 are lack of concentration and very firm acidity," he explained, adding that the lees stirring was helping to fatten the middle of the wines, especially the village cuvees. Grape sugars were sound, however, in the 13.2% to 13.5% range for the premier crus (the 2003s were more like 14.5%!), and Latour told me he chaptalized only about a quarter degree. (A Patrick Lesec selection; importers include Classic Wine Imports, Boston, MA; Monsieur Touton, New York, NY; The Stacole Co., Boca Raton, FL; Fine Vines, Chicago, IL; and Wine Warehouse, Los Angeles, CA)

By coincidence, I went directly from a visit with Jean-Philippe Fichet to see Jean-Pierre Latour across the street along the Route Nationale in Meursault. Both of these winemakers made wonderfully precise 2002s and both of them spoke at length about the challenges of vintage 2003, especially in the village of Meursault Latour harvested much later than Fichet, however, waiting until September 1 to begin p icking. spanstyle='mso-spacerun:yes'> Some rain on the Friday night and Saturday morning before we started harvesting on Monday helped to invigorate the vines," he told me. Before then our vines were just not ready to be harvested. "Latour's 2003s, not surprisingly, are rich in alcohol-as high as 14. 5% for the premier crus. He has kept his cellar very cool to slow the development of the wines in barrel and was still stirring the lees every two weeks to enrich the wines. The 2003s have concentration and purity," Latour maintains, "and therefore the wines merit a longer elevage Latour presented me with samples from once-used barrels with a squirt of new-barrel juice added-a strategy he thought would provide the most accurate approximations of the ultimate blends. (A Patrick Lesec selection; importers include Classic Wine Imports, Boston MA Monsieur Touton, New York NY The Stacole Co. , Boca Raton, FL; Fine Vines, Chicago, IL; and Wine Warehouse, Los Angeles, CA)