2003 Mazy-Chambertin Grand Cru

After visiting with Charles Rousseau in his office in the courtyard of this estate, I tasted the 2004s with new assistant Anne Schussler, who told me that the estate lost one-third of its harvest to hail. "But it was an easy matter to eliminate the rotten and hailed-on grapes at the harvest, in the vines," she said. The ultimate production was between 2002 and 2003 in size-or about 32 hectoliters per hectare for the grand crus. This year, the Rousseaus did not heat their cellar to push through the malolactic fermentations, with the result that the malos occurred in a leisurely fashion; some wines did not finish until summer. They should all be bottled by the summer of 2006, said Schussler. I found these wines reasonably pure but lacking in stuffing and real concentration; a few of the big boys seemed to be hiding behind their tannins in November. But it must be noted that due to the late malos these wines were considerably less advanced than they usually are at the same date.

"The numbers at the harvest of 2003 were not good, but they're much better now," said Charles Rousseau.The Rousseaus harvested from August 23 through 31, on the early side and in the mornings only, for fear of losing more acidity. They threw away a lot of dried grapes, and most of those they kept were very small. The vinifications lasted a relatively short 10 days, versus a normal 15 or more here.Rousseau acidified the musts but noted that the pHs were always decent despite the low levels of acidity, and he observed that little acidity was lost during the malolactic fermentations.The wines had been racked in February of 2004 following the typically early malolactic fermentations here, and again in September."Today the wines are tasting fresh, but we don't know why," said Corinne Rousseau."Maybe they're not going to be for drinking right away.The grape sugars were in the 13% to 13.5% range, which is normal for us.And unlike 1997 and 1998, the wines show no overripe character.We don't understand that either."Incidentally, with the 2002 vintage, the Rousseaus introduced a new destemmer that doesn't crush the berries, and they report that it slows down the beginning of the fermentations by a day or two.