2011 Meursault Clos des Ambres

Ente was another vigneron who was not ready to show his 2012s at the beginning of June due to their extremely long malolactic fermentations. The tricky growing season, which began with serious frost, "especially on the plain," and also featured two serious hail events, required more than 25 treatments against mildew, vs. a normal 5 to 12. Yields were under 20 hectoliters per hectare across the board, with ultimate crop levels down as much as 80% in Ente's Casse-Tetes and Goutte d'Or holdings. The wines will be very rich, he told me, without any "deviations."The 2011s here show considerable charm. Ente describes them as "similar to 2010 in balance but not in style. They're a bit fleshier and thicker, while the 2010s are more crystalline." The wines, he went on, "were scrambled during elevage and took time to reveal themselves, but they have evolved well." Ente ages his wines in barrel for 12 months, then in cuve for another 6. He is always an early harvester (he began on August 27 in 2011 and on September 14 in 2012), as he seeks to make ageworthy wines with sound natural acidity and inner-mouth tension.

Ente assured me that he wasn't the first to harvest in Meursault, but he nonetheless began on August 25 in his Goutte d'Or vines. "It was very hot during the nights at the end of August," Ente told me. "The sugars were up, the acids went down and the pHs stayed healthy. There was a lot of rain on the 26th but the fruit was not rotting and did not become dilute. Only the Aligote was chaptalized; the rest had potential alcohol in the 12% to 12.5% range. The 2011s have very good acidity; they're clean, precise and very open. And they seem to be developing rapidly." Ente added that his yields in 2011 were essentially the same as those of the previous vintage, below 40 hectoliters per hectare on average. He described his 2011s as "denser than the 2007s, more fleshy and opulent. In comparison, the 2007s are more taut and sharply chiseled." Ente normally does a long, soft pressing of whole clusters and a 12-hour settling of the must, describing this as "the Champagne method, to get finesse." The 2011 malos were finished here by the end of January and Ente sulfured his wines in April.