2005 Chassagne-Montrachet Vieilles Vignes

Morey started picking on Friday, September 22, as he tends to begin his harvest at the end of the week. Despite the relatively late harvest, he feels that 2006 is an exceptional year, "with perfect, very fast ripeness, no worries, and no rot due to our anti-botrytis sprays." The wines possess more volume than the 2005s but not more acidity, he told me. Hardly any chaptalization was needed, as grape sugars ranged from 13% to 14.7%. After the fermentations, Morey thought the 2006s resembled the 1999s but now he finds more elegance but perhaps less opulence in the new vintage. Morey believes that 2005, austere in its youth, will make "a great old vintage, like 1990." But today he prefers both 2006 and 2004. As always, I began my barrel tasting in his negociant cellar. Incidentally, 2006 will be Morey's last official vintage, as he will be splitting his domain between his two sons.

Hail from the premier cru Morgeot to Santenay reduced the 2005 crop significantly, said Bernard Morey, but even production in the family's other vineyards was lower in 2005 due to the large size of the crop load in 2004.Morey describes the new vintage as very ripe and fairly low in acid.As always, he stirred the lees every other week until the malos, which all ended between January and March.Interestingly, in contrast to the majority of his colleagues on the Cote de Beaune, Morey finds that the 2005s finished their fermentations even drier than the 2004s.