2002 Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru

Some people violated the law of nature and picked too early, just 85 days after the flowering," opined Jean-Marc Pillot, who started harvesting chardonnay on August 30, nearly the normal 100 days after the flowering. We had to wait to have enough sugar so that we wouldn't have to chaptalize," he explained, adding that potential alcohols were typically between 13% and 13. 6%-"but not 14%!"In any event, he went on, the rain during the afternoon of August 27 really helped the grapes. Growers in Chassagne-Montrachet benefited by harvesting later, as a rule, than those in Meursault, Pillot added. Pillot reduced his percentage of new oak "to avoid getting even hotter, heavier wines. "The 2003s, he told me, have changed completely since April-and for the better. (Rosenthal Wine Merchant, Shekomeko NY

Jean-Marc Pillot's highly impressive 2002s offer the exhilarating sugar/acid balance of this vintage at its best. The fermentations were long, leaving behind healthy levels of residual sugar," he told me. But we got concentration in the days leading up to the harvest from evaporation of water in the grapes, rather than from sheer heat, which would have resulted in a drop in acidity and unbalanced wines. The evaporation concentrated all the elements, the grape sugars and the acids." Pillot added that he needed to pick his Chassagne fruit a couple of days later than in Puligny as the fruit was not quite as ripe. In the end, though, virtually no chaptalization was needed. Incidentally, with his cellar fully air-conditioned for the first time in 2002, Pillot carried out a cooler fermentation, with the temperature a very low 50oF at the end, when the wines went into barrel, and Pillot feels this approach was good for the wines' aromatics.