1998 Meursault Les Tillets

"The '99s are supple, agreeable wines with thoroughly enrobed acidity," says Yves Boyer. "They're for drinking on the early side, but they may yet surprise us with their ability to age as they appear to have taken on body in barrel. Still, the '99s should be drunk before '97 and '96, but after the '98s. The '98s, with their pale gold colors, are a bit too ripe. Fruit affected by oidium tends eventually to give a mushroomy taste," Boyer adds. "I may have picked a bit late in '98; certainly we gained nothing by waiting." Boyer benefits from a high percentage of old vines-"all massale no clones, which means that the yields are never outrageous." (A Peter Vezan selection; importers include North Berkeley Imports, Berkeley, CA (the higher prices shown below are those of North Berkeley Imports, which in most cases has made barrel selections and had the wine bottled without filtration); Michael Skurnik Wines, Westbury, NY; Vintner Select, Cincinnati, OH; and Dionysos Imports, Lorton, VA)

Yves Boyer describes the '98 and '97 vintages as very close in quality. The '97s, he says, are a bit more minerally, a bit more structured than the '98s, but have similar acidity levels, while the '98s appear more tendre today and are tasting well early. The earlier vintage has a bit more material, he adds, and thus may be a better bet for aging. Boyer tries to pick on the early side to retain acidity, and then chaptalizes a bit to enrich the wines. The wines bottled without filtration for North Berkeley Imports are made in a higher percentage of new barrels-with the used barrels generally just one or two years old. Both sets of wines are bottled before the next vintage. As at most of the addresses I visited this spring, the malolactic fermentations were finished, but the wines had not yet been racked. (A Peter Vezan selection; importers include North Berkeley Imports, Berkeley, CA; Michael Skurnik Wines, Westbury, NY; Vintner Select, Cincinnati, OH; and Import!, Madison, WI)