1999 Pommard Les Pezerolles 1er Cru

If one domain has benefitted from the recent string of warm growing seasons, it the Domaine de Montille, which has traditionally been averse to adding sugar to its musts, even at the risk of bottling wines with alcohol in the low 12.0% to 12.5% range. (In the past, this has frequently made these wines appear lean and austere in early tastings next to beefier examples of Burgundy, but more often than not it was the de Montille wines that impressed with their purity and flavor intensity 12 to 20 years later while the oversugared wines had collapsed.) In the last few warm vintages, grape sugars have been high and chaptalization has been minimal or totally unnecessary. Etienne de Montille, who is now in charge of winemaking, told me he occasionally chaptalizes barely 0.2%, "just to allow for evaporation of alcohol." At his spacious new aging facility in Beaune, the wines are racked only when needed, and a relatively low percentage of new wood (typically around 20%) is used for the crus. Bottling takes place on the late side (between May and August of 2000 for the '98 crus). On my November visit, both the '99s and '98s showed spectacularly.