2003 Vosne-Romanee Les Beaux Monts

Clavelier describes the 2004s as "accurate to their terroir, with good precision but lacking richness. We didn't see the sun in August. "Clavelier told me he started harvesting a few days later than his neighbors, following a lot of tasting of the grapes, then eliminated less-good fruit in the vines and on a table de trie. As is his normal practice, he did a long but gentle vinification, with gentle pigeage andup to a week of post-fermentation maceration. What he likes most of all about the '04s is their energy. In 2003, he told me, "in contrast, it's the polyphenols that will take the place of acidity and protect the wines. "Still, he added, it was necessary to pick early in 2003.

Clavelier harvested between August 23 and 30, picking only during the mornings.He chilled the musts but the fermentations still began after no more than four or five days. Clavelier was one of a minority of winemakers who told me he did not acidify in 2003, as he was afraid that this would give the wines "a dryness, a metallic quality."The malos finished early here, between January and March of 2003, but the wines were still on their lees, protected by carbonic gas, at the beginning of November.Clavelier believes the 2003s will be easy to drink early on, but he is also convinced that it's easy to underestimate the longevity of this vintage."There's a huge concentration of polyphenols, and the tannins are very suave," he told me.(Michael Stephens/Vins Divins, Beaune, France; imported by Fruit of the Vine, New York, NY; Atherton Wine Imports, Atherton, CA)