2007 Pommard Vaumuriens

Yves Confuron, as is his habit, picked later than most of his neighbors in Pommard, beginning on September 8. With potential alcohol levels between 13% and 13.5%, the wines, he says, "have almost the same balance as the 2005s. There's a definite mellowness in the 2007s but their aromas are fresher. The '05s have more volume but they're a bit heavier." Through vendange entier, Confuron gets a long, "soft" fermentation lasting up to a month. I asked Confuron if it was possible that wines that seem clean in the early going might develop aromas of rot later on in bottle. His response: "This doesn't normally happen-usually only where growers use a lot of new oak to mask off notes at the beginning."