2003 Pommard Les Pezerolles 1er Cru

Etienne de Montille was one of several winemakers on the Cote de Beaune who were still mystified by the effects of the late August hail storm in 2004. "The effect of the hail was different in '04 than in '01," he said. "In 2001 it delayed the ripening process, and the vineyards never caught up. But it was the opposite in 2004:it accelerated and concentrated the ripeness. We actually had higher sugars in 2004 than in 2003. For the moment at least, we don't have an answer to the question of why the hail had this kind of effect. "I tasted a few of the young 2004s from cuve, as the wines that finished their malos by March were racked in October and moved to stainless steel to preserve freshness of fruit. "The racking has brought finesse and precision to the wines," said Montille, who destemmed all of his fruit from vineyards affected by hail (the Volnays and the Pommard Rugiens) and did a gentle extraction. Montille's 2003s boast outstanding volume and mouthfilling texture without heaviness.

Etienne de Montille started the 2003 harvest on August 22 with the family's Volnay vineyards, eliminating a lot of dried berries.The grapes were so hot that the juice was running out, so he quickly decided to bring refrigerated trucks into the vineyards to cool down the fruit.The refrigeration kept the grapes fresh, and allowed Montille to vinify with a high percentage of whole clusters, which did not generally begin to ferment for four or five days and which also slowed the pace of the fermentation.Montille cut the percentage of new oak to just 10% to 20%.The malolactics mostly finished between June and September, and virtually everything in the cellar had been sulfured the week prior to my visit.For each sample, Montille made a blend from a selection of different barrels.These 2003s are big, rich, very ripe wines with alcohol levels between 13.5% and 14%.They are not your father's Volnays-or Etienne's father's.