2006 Meursault Clos des Ambres

Ente, who has a history of early picking, started bringing in chardonnay on September 2 with potential alcohol in the 12% to 12.5% range. He describes 2007 as a classic year, with "acidity, tension and no excess heat: very interesting!" As the flowering had begun very early, the vines benefited from a long vegetative cycle, he told me, adding that grapes picked after September 5 were likely to have been in surmaturite. Not surprisingly in light of the early harvest date here, Ente's 2007s are carrying brisk acidity in the 4.5 grams-per-liter range (compared to 3.9 to 4.0 in 2006). Incidentally, Ente told me that his 2007s finished with about 1.5 grams per liter of residual sugar, and that his 2006s were even drier-in contrast to the reports of most other growers I visited this spring. Clearly, Ente's habit of picking early allows him to bottle comparatively dry wines. Not surprisingly, he prefers both 2007 and 2004 to the riper 2006 and 2005 vintages.

I nominate Ente as the test case for early harvesting in 2006. Ente started picking on September 13 (as early a starting date as I heard from the growers I visited in late spring) and finished in a week. "We had potential alcohols between 13.3% and 13.6% and the grapes were ripe at that point, with a superb acid balance," Ente explained. "I love minerality, and I didn't want to lose that by waiting." Acid levels following the malos are in the healthy 4 to 4.5 grams-per-liter range, or a good half-gram higher than the figures provided by most other estates on my annual tour. The wines have a bracing character and green-tinged colors I found at very few other addresses, not to mention more moderate alcohol levels than most Meursaults from fruit harvested later; only time will tell if they are sufficiently ripe to expand and broaden in bottle. My gut feeling is that they will enjoy a slow and eventful evolution. Ente noted that his 2006s and 2005s featured similar yields (about 40 hectoliters per hectare on average) and density. Acid levels were a bit higher in '06, and partly for this reason he finds the 2005s to be very good but not great, "lacking ultimate finesse and distinction." As in most recent vintages, the 2006 Aligote and Bourgogne Blanc will both be worth seeking out, with the latter wine especially racy and successful-as well as the highest in potential alcohol in '06.