2008 Meursault Les Clous

"The balance of the 2009s has been a pleasant surprise," said winemaker Philippe Prost. "The wines were explosive in the beginning, but they had a green apple flavor and we were afraid of this because they don't have a lot of acidity. But during elevage, they have gotten better definition of flavor and there doesn't seem to be too much malic acidity." Prost noted that the fruit concentrated well in the last days before the harvest, gaining in minerality, and that Bouchard picked chardonnay before pinot noir because they were afraid of the acid level falling. Grape sugars therefore were not excessive, but they were higher than those of 2008 and 2007. No chaptalization was done for the grand crus or the Meursault premier crus. Prost went on to describe this vintage as offering "la beaute du diable": "The wines are flashy now, like lipstick, but what will happen after a few years? But, in fact, they are turning out to be more classic than we thought at the beginning." Prost did more batonnage in 2009 than in 2008, but he pointed out that he's more likely to roll the barrels than to stir the lees, as it's less oxidative.

According to winemaker Philippe Prost, there was a lot of potassium in the 2008 fruit due to the rains of July and early August, and thus the crystals precipitated quickly in the white wines in barrel and gave the wines an early bitterness. Bouchard's philosophy has always been to pick early, but now, says Prost, "we're also picking more precisely, and we took our time in 2008 to pick chardonnay. In 2004 we had the same potassium quality in the grapes, so we're not surprised that in 2008 it's taking longer for us to be able to see the ultimate definition of the vintage. We have an expression in French: la beaute du diable. The 2008s may be fragile wines, especially where the alcoholic fermentations were fast and then the malos took a long time to start." The 2008s I note below were finished with their malos at the time of my visit.